[Funding] Skill-Lync raises $17.5 Mn in largest Series A round for an Indian edtech

Indian edtech startup Skill-Lync has raised $17.5 Million in Series A round, led by Iron Pillar. Existing investors Y Combinator and Better Capital also participated in this funding round. Further, 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.

The company provides job-leading industry-relevant courses in the Mechanical, Electrical, Civil, and Computer Science Engineering domains. It also provided interdisciplinary and job-oriented courses in topics such as Electric Vehicle Design, Embedded Systems design, Autonomous vehicles, Renewable Energy, Full-Stack Development, Data Analytics, and Construction Project Management. This ensures the alignment of the engineering talent pool with the needs of these industries. Given its specialized digital delivery model, the platform has the highest course completion rates in these course categories. The startup has collaborated with 800+ Industry experts to creating its existing course content. It also has full-time people with extensive experience in the industry to provide the students a world-class learning experience.

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 the constant upskilling of engineering professionals. Hence, the need of the hour is to have engineers who know both engineering fundamentals and how they can be applied to solve real-world engineering problems through engineering design and simulation tools.”

Plans to use the fund:

“Skill-Lync’s ability to understand the demands of the industry through our deep industry partnerships and the 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 an 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,” added Suryanarayanan.

“SKILL-LYNC will double down on developing corporate partnerships to understand future talent requirements, build in-house high-end engineering teams to offer excellent learning outcomes to our students,” Sarangarajan V Iyengar, Co-Founder, Skill-Lync further added. The company will use the capital to increase the number of courses. It also aims to build out the next level of a strong management team and expand the business to international markets.

Anand Prasanna, Managing Partner, Iron Pillar, said, “Engineering education and upskilling outside of Computer Science has 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 the 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.”