Emversity Raises $30 Million To Scale Employability-Led Higher Education

India’s higher education system has expanded rapidly over the past decade. What has lagged behind is employability. Bengaluru-based Emversity is betting that the solution lies not outside universities but embedded within them.

The higher-education embedded training and employability platform has raised $30 million (₹271 crore) in a Series A round led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed and Z47, taking its total funding to $46 million. The capital will be used to significantly scale its campus footprint, expand into new skilling verticals, and strengthen its technology-led education-to-employment platform.

Building Employability Inside The University System

Operated by Beyond Odds Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Emversity works directly with universities to integrate industry-aligned curricula, work-integrated training, and employer linkages into formal degree programmes. The approach is designed to address a long-standing gap: graduates entering the workforce without job-ready skills.

Rather than creating parallel training institutes, Emversity embeds applied learning into existing academic structures. This includes simulation-based and AR/VR-enabled learning infrastructure that allows students to train in real-world scenarios while still enrolled in university programmes.

In parallel, the company works directly with employers and runs dedicated skill centres affiliated with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), offering short-term programmes focused on healthcare and hospitality, two sectors facing persistent workforce shortages.

Employer-Co-Created Talent Pipelines

In under two years, Emversity has scaled to support over 4,500 learners across more than 40 campuses, positioning itself as a category leader in embedded employability solutions. Its programmes are co-created with employers to ensure curriculum relevance and predictable hiring outcomes.

Early cohorts have gone on to work with organisations such as Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Aster, KIMS, IHCL (Taj Hotels), and Lemon Tree Hotels. The model spans both university-embedded programmes and Emversity-operated skill centres, allowing employers to access job-ready talent while students transition more seamlessly from education to employment.

Scaling Beyond Healthcare And Hospitality

The fresh capital will be deployed across several long-term priorities. Emversity plans to expand its presence from 40+ campuses to over 200 locations, while deepening its leadership in healthcare and hospitality skilling.

It also plans to launch new skilling verticals for infrastructure-led EPC and manufacturing industries, reflecting growing demand for trained talent in capital-intensive sectors. Alongside this, the company will continue investing in its technology-enabled careers platform, which spans career discovery, training, employability, and workforce mobility.

Vivek Sinha, Founder & CEO, Emversity, said, “India has added significant capacity in higher education over the past decade, but the alignment between education and employability has not kept pace with the needs of a rapidly changing economy. Universities have built academic scale and depth, while skill requirements across sectors have evolved far more quickly.”

He added that the funding will allow Emversity to scale its model while leveraging existing university infrastructure and supporting long-term employability outcomes.

Investor Conviction In Outcome-Oriented Education

Investors backing the round pointed to Emversity’s focus on outcomes and its ability to operate within the existing education ecosystem.

Kaveesh Chawla, Partner, Premji Invest, said, “As the need to bridge the gap between academic learning and real-world employability grows, Emversity’s student-centric approach, focus on apprenticeships, and strong alignment with industry partners position it well to address this gap at scale.”

Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director, Z47, highlighted the platform’s sector focus, noting that Emversity is building employability infrastructure in areas critical to India’s long-term growth.

Harsha Kumar, Partner, Lightspeed, added that Emversity’s decision to work within institutions rather than around them has helped align universities, employers, and learners over the long term.

A Structural Play On Education-To-Employment

As policymakers, universities, and employers increasingly focus on outcomes rather than enrolment numbers, Emversity’s model reflects a broader shift in Indian higher education, from credentialing to capability-building.

By embedding employability into degree programmes and linking education directly to workforce demand, the company is positioning itself not just as a skilling platform, but as infrastructure for education-to-employment at scale.

Whether that model can sustain quality while expanding across hundreds of campuses will be closely watched. For now, investor confidence suggests that employability-led education is moving from the margins to the mainstream.