Palo Alto/Bangalore, August 3, 2021: Iron Pillar, a venture growth investor backing global technology companies built from India, today announced its USD 15 million investment in YCombinator-backed, engineering focused edtech start-up, Skill-Lync. Existing investors, Y Combinator and Better Capital, also invested in this $17.5 million funding round. In addition, Binny Bansal (Co-founder of Flipkart), Sai Krishnamurthy (ex-Flipkart; Co-founder of Xto10X) and Rashmi Kwatra (Founder of Sixteenth Street Capital) joined as new investors in this round.
Suryanarayanan P, Co-Founder and CEO, Skill-Lync, said, “The ever increasing gap between what industries expect and what students learn during their engineering education has caused a global shortage of high-quality engineering talent. The rapid adoption of new technologies by industries has also created a need for constant upskilling of engineering professionals. Hence, the need of the hour is to have engineers who have knowledge of both engineering fundamentals and how they can be applied to solve real world engineering problems through engineering design and simulation tools. Skill-Lync’s ability to understand the demands of the industry through our deep industry partnerships and expert network, has allowed us to create technical content that matches the present and future requirements of industries across the globe. We believe that our partnership with Iron Pillar will allow us to tap into Iron Pillar’s network of global experts and help us accelerate towards our goal of building a global alternate platform for engineering education. We are also thankful to our existing investors, Y Combinator and Better Capital, for their continued trust in our mission.”
Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar, said, “Engineering education and upskilling outside of Computer Science have seen very little digital disruption over the last two decades. This, combined with the ever expanding need for real world interdisciplinary applications of engineering in today’s world creates a unique opportunity to establish a multi $ Billion global company with deep moats in this space. This is also a strong beachhead for expansion into multiple adjacent areas. Surya, Sarang and rest of the Skill-Lync team have already built a great product and significant revenue in the business, with exceptional growth and capital efficiency. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to partner with them in this journey.”
Skill-Lync has collaborated with 800+ Industry experts for creating their existing course content and has full-time people with extensive experience in the Industry (with companies like Bosch, Cummins, ABB, Samsung, Accenture etc.) to provide students a world-class learning experience. Given its specialized digital delivery model, the platform has the highest course completion rates in specialised course categories.
About Skill-Lync
Skill-Lync was launched in April 2018 by Suryanarayanan P (CEO) and Sarangarajan V (CTO) to address the lack of quality and application-based learning in the Indian undergraduate engineering education system. It is currently focused on providing students with two different models, available both online and offline:
- 8-12 month Master courses focused on providing in-depth industry relevant technical knowledge to students along with a strong portfolio of projects that are aimed to help them get relevant jobs
- 6-Month programs at physical Skill-Centers, where the students are provided with access to hands-on practical experience, and are equipped with industry relevant skills from the experts
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Iron Pillar is a venture growth investor, focused on enterprise and consumer technology businesses that are building from India for the world. Since 2016, Iron Pillar has been working closely with extraordinary Founders to help them scale profitably from ~$10 million to $100 million+ in revenues. The firm has consistently executed this strategy across its marquee list of portfolio companies, including BlueStone, CureFoods, FreshToHome, Servify, Uniphore and others.
Beyond capital, Iron Pillar works alongside Founders to accelerate their business growth across three key areas: (1) expanding business development to global markets; (2) providing guidance on go-to-market strategies, including access to C-level talent; and (3) facilitating strategic capital introductions. The firm is dedicated to partnering with Founders on their journey to build transformational, resilient and valuable companies.
Iron Pillar has offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Dubai and Palo Alto. Additional information is available at www.ironpillarfund.com