As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce-training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles it sees AI can’t replace, and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job-ready training in the world’s most populous market.

The all-equity Series A round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47, the Bengaluru-based startup announced on Thursday. The funding values Emversity at around $120 million post-money, sources confirmed to TechCrunch, up from about $60 million in its April 2025 pre-Series A round. Total funding now stands at $46 million.

India has been grappling with a widening skills gap, with graduates often entering the workforce without job-ready skills even as key service sectors struggle to hire trained staff. In healthcare, the Indian government says the country has about 4.3 million registered nursing personnel and 5,253 nursing institutions producing roughly 387,000 nurses annually, yet recent reports have continued to flag a shortage. Hospitality, too, has faced a 55% to 60% demand-supply gap for workers, according to industry estimates.

Emversity is trying to bridge that gap by integrating employer-designed training programs into university curricula and running skill centers affiliated with the Indian government’s National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) for short-term certifications and placements.

The two-year-old startup has partnered with 23 universities and colleges across over 40 campuses and focuses on “grey-collar” roles — positions that require hands-on training and credentialing — including nurses, physiotherapists, and medical lab technicians, as well as hospitality roles such as guest relations and food and beverage service.

Emversity has trained about 4,500 learners so far and placed 800 candidates to date, founder and CEO Vivek Sinha (pictured above) said in an interview.

Sinha, who previously served as chief operating officer at Indian edtech startup Unacademy for over three years before starting Emversity in 2023, told TechCrunch he conceived the idea while working on test-preparation courses for entry-level government jobs. He noticed that applicants included engineers, MBAs, and even PhDs.

“I started speaking to these learners,” he said. “Some of them had paid fees to private colleges and spent 16 to 18 years earning those degrees.”

Sinha said the gap has widened in recent years and could grow further as automation and new workplace tools change what employers expect from entry-level hires, while demand remains strong in credentialed roles such as healthcare, where hands-on training and staffing ratios still matter.

“AI can cut down the administrative work of a nurse, such as filing patient details or electronic medical records,” Sinha stated. “But AI can’t replace a nurse if you still need one at an ICU for every two beds.”

Emversity works with employers such as Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Aster, KIMS, IHCL (Taj Hotels), and Lemon Tree Hotels to co-design role-specific training modules, which it then helps universities embed into their degree programs. The startup does not charge employers, instead earning revenue through fees paid by partner institutions and through short-term certification programs run at its NSDC-affiliated skill centers.

The startup operates with gross margins of about 80% and has kept customer acquisition costs below 10% of revenue by relying largely on organic channels rather than performance marketing, Sinha said.

He added that the startup offers a career counseling platform for high school students that generated more than 350,000 inquiries and accounted for more than 20% of revenue last year.

With the fresh funding, Emversity plans to expand its footprint to more than 200 locations over the next two years and deepen its focus on healthcare and hospitality, while entering new industries such as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and manufacturing. The startup is already in advanced discussions with one of India’s top EPC companies to design and roll out role-specific programs this year, and plans to begin manufacturing-focused training next year, Sinha said.

To deliver consistent outcomes across campuses, Emversity combines employer-led curriculum design with hands-on training infrastructure, including simulation labs for clinical roles such as nursing and emergency care.

Last year, Emversity’s revenue split roughly evenly between its university-embedded training programs and short-term certification courses run through its own skill centers, Sinha said.

While Emversity currently builds talent pipelines for domestic employers, Sinha said the startup sees an opportunity to eventually serve international demand as well, particularly in healthcare, as aging populations in markets such as Japan and Germany look for trained workers. However, he did not disclose the exact timeline for catering to global demand.

Emversity has about 700 employees, including 200 to 250 trainers deployed across its campus network.