As artificial intelligence automates parts of the workforce, Happinessan Indian workforce training startup is building talent pipelines for roles it believes artificial intelligence can’t replace and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job 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 about $120 million post-money, sources confirmed to TechCrunch, up from about $60 million in an April 2025 pre-Series A round. Total funding now stands at $46 million.
India is grappling with a widening skills gap, with graduates often entering the workforce without job-ready skills, even as key service sectors struggle to recruit trained staff. In the health sector, the Indian government says the country has approximately 4.3 million registered nursing personnel and 5,253 nursing institutions producing approximately 387,000 nurses annually, however recent reports have went on to point out a deficiency. Hospitality, too, has faced a demand-supply gap of 55% to 60%. for workers, according to industry estimates.
Emversity strives to bridge this 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 on more than 40 campuses and focuses on “gray collar” roles — positions that require hands-on training and certification — including nurses, physical therapists and medical lab technicians, as well as hospitality roles such as customer service and food service.
Emversity has trained about 4,500 students so far and placed 800 candidates to date, founder and CEO Vivek Sinha (pictured above) said in an interview.
Sinha, who previously served as CEO at Indian edtech startup Unacademy for more than three years before launching Emversity in 2023, told TechCrunch that he came up with the idea while working on test prep courses for entry-level jobs. He noticed that applicants included engineers, MBAs, and even Ph.D.s.
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“I started talking to these students,” he said. “Some of them had paid tuition at private colleges and spent 16 to 18 years earning those degrees.”
Sinha said the gap has widened in recent years and could widen further as automation and new tools in the workplace change what employers expect from hires, while demand remains strong in established roles such as healthcare, where hands-on training and staffing ratios still matter.
“Artificial intelligence can reduce the administrative work of a nurse, such as submitting patient information or electronic medical records,” said Sinha. “But AI can’t replace a nurse if you still need one in the 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 integrate into their curricula. The startup does not charge employers, instead it earns revenue through fees paid by partner institutions and through short-term certification programs run at NSDC-affiliated skill centers.
The startup operates with gross margins of about 80 percent and has kept customer acquisition costs below 10 percent of revenue by relying heavily 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 new 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 leading EPC firms to design and develop role-specific programs this year, and plans to launch 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 was split almost evenly between university-embedded training programs and short-term certification courses run through its own skill centers, Sinha said.
While Emversity is currently building 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 like Japan and Germany look for educated workers. However, he did not reveal the exact timetable for meeting global demand.
Emversity has approximately 700 employees, including 200 to 250 instructors deployed across the campus network.
