Tech Skilling Startup NxtWave Raises $2.8M in Pre-Series A Funding

NxtWave, a Hyderabad-based tech skilling platform, has raised $2.8 million in a pre-Series A funding round led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital.

The round was also joined by Ravi Bhushan (Founder, BrightChamps), Ramakant Sharma (Founder, LivSpace), and Vikram Kailas (Co-Founder, Mytrah Energy), Umang Kumar (Co-founder & President, CarDekho), Chakradhar Gade (Co-founder, Country Delight), Anupam Mittal (Founder, Shaadi.com), Vikas Malpani (Cofounder, Leher & Commonfloor), Rajesh Shawney (Founder, GSF Accelerator), Nandu Nandkishore (Professor ISB & Former Global CEO Nestlé Nutrition) and Shaji Devakar (Executive Director, IIFL Wealth) and Giridhar Malpani (Founder, Climber Capital),

NxtWave plans to use the fresh capital to expand its team, accelerate product development and penetrate further into existing markets to scale the revenue by 5X in the next 12 months. The company is bootstrapped, cash-flow positive, with an annual run rate (ARR) of $7.5 million, it said in a statement.

Founded in 2020 by Rahul Attuluri, Sashank Reddy Gujjula, and Anupam Pedarla, NxtWave provides vernacular, asynchronous, and online cohort-based training programmes in Industry 4.0 tech careers tracks for college students, graduates, and early professionals.

NxtWave is on a mission to build India’s largest online employability university for 4.0 tech careers without the need for a conventional college degree. The company aims to produce one million new-age developers every year.

Speaking about the company, Rahul Attuluri, Co-founder and CEO of NxtWave, said,

“We believe that the digital pedagogy must be radically different for small towns to create transformative learning experiences. To achieve this, we have adopted a multi-pronged approach, leveraging technology, pedagogy, and vernacular content.”

The startup claims to have an active student community of more than 200,000 members from over 3,000 colleges. Its paying customers come from 250+ districts with more than 85 percent of them coming from non-metros and rural areas.

Anup Jain, Managing Partner, Orios Venture Partners, said,

“Every year, India sees over 10million engineering students graduate from small-town India’s numerous engineering colleges. Their skills are widening vs the demands of the industry due to outpacing of the curriculum and constraints around pedagogy. These students are more comfortable in a mix of vernacular and English and can scale to achieving similar heights as their large city counterparts with the right platform. This opportunity is valued at $8bn annually and growing. We are thrilled to join Nxtwave in its journey to address this gap and help them achieve their large vision.”

Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital said,

“NxtWave’s vernacular & semi-synchronous format is a brilliant innovation that plugs a massive gap for Bharat students and early professionals and creates an on-ramp for them into the fast-growing tech ecosystem – and in a way that was never done before.”

According to a company’s statement, more than 250 companies have hired NxtWave graduates including the likes of Google and Jio in the last 6 months.

Last year, the NxtWave team launched their Continuous Career Building Programs (CCBP 4.0) to skill up youth and make them ready for Industry 4.0.

About the Author

Author: Shalini Pathak

Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.

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