Online education startup Springboard, which offers courses, employability tools and career services for professionals, has raised $31 million in Series B funding, led by new investor Telstra Ventures. Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures also participated along with existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital and Learn Capital.
With this, Springboard has raised over $50 million.
Edtech startups have already raised around $795 million this year, largely led by Byju’s that is valued now at $10.5 billion. Byju’s is in advanced talks to raise another $400 million from DST Global after it raised $100 million from Mary Meeker’s fund Bond. Last month, online learning startup Vedantu raised $100 million, Toppr raised $50 million while Unacademy is reportedly raising capital at a valuation of over $1 billion.
Springboard has offices in Bengaluru and California and focuses on skill-based courses like data science, user experience design, artificial intelligence and business analytics among others.
The latest round of capital will be used to double down on student employability in response to the current job market in India and globally, by creating new hiring-focused products and strengthening employer partnerships to help graduates in the post-pandemic economy, Springboard said.
Started by co-founders Gautam Tambay and Parul Gupta in 2013, Springboard focuses on employability. The company claims that 94% of eligible graduates secure a job within a year, earning an average salary increase of $26,000. Springboard matches each student 1:1 with a personalized mentor, an industry professional, who provides weekly feedback to keep students motivated and accountable. This approach has resulted in 330% student enrollment growth from June 2019 to June 2020.
“As more and more companies are built on tech, the need to understand concepts like Data Science, AI, ML, UI/UX has become more homogenous. For learning to be meaningful, it needs to encompass state-of-the-art curriculum with real-world projects as well as mentorship and that is what Springboard stands for. With this funding we are in a good position to build on our strengths to provide in-demand job skills and holistic support at every step,” said Vivek Kumar, Managing Director, Springboard.
Springboard is also expanding its career services and has tripled the number of virtual apprenticeship opportunities to provide real-world work experience, added Kumar.
