SwiftAce Inc, which runs the data science and machine learning-focused ed-tech startup Jovian, on Tuesday said it has raised $1.5 million (around Rs 12 crore) in its seed funding round led by Multiply Ventures.
Other investors who took part in this funding round include Y Combinator, Better Capital and angel investors such as Kunal Shah, (Founder, CRED), Phanindra Sama, (Co-founder, redBus), Aprameya Radhakrishna, (Co-founder, Koo), Christian Oestlien, (Director, Product Management, YouTube), Anand Madhavan, (VP of Engineering, EverLaw), among others.
The startup plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand its team of data science experts to enhance the curriculum and provide mentorship to its growing student base.
Founded in 2019 by Aakash N S and Siddhant Ujjain, Jovian’s flagship data science and machine learning bootcamp helps working professionals in programming or analytics make a career transition to data science. It also offers several free beginner-friendly courses and has a fast-growing community of more than 2 lakh users from over 180 countries.
“There is a large and growing demand for data science talent around the world, and university programs have not been able to keep up. On the other hand, many people already have most of the skills required to become a data scientist: programming, math, and analytical thinking. So, we’ve crafted a 6-month part-time job-oriented data science training program for working professionals to help fill this gap," said Aakash N S.
Jovian is helping working professionals from STEM backgrounds upskill and make a career transition to data science. The startup plans to offer programs for data engineering, deep learning, and machine learning engineering.
In some other developments around the upskilling space recently, career tech platform Internshala raised an undisclosed amount in a Series A round from LC Nueva’s alternate investment fund (AIF).
“There is a massive shortage of data science talent globally and it’s doubling every two years. The engineers, researchers, and marketers of today will be the data scientists of tomorrow as increasing automation disrupts the jobs landscape over the next five years. Jovian solves this by upskilling industry professionals into data science professionals to reduce this massive gap. Upskilling is a continuous process and it's a core tenet of our investment strategy at Multiply ventures," said Raveen Sastry, Founding Partner, Multiply Ventures.
Even bigger players like Byju’s are seeking to expand their footprint in the upskilling space. Earlier in May, Great Learning, owned by the unicorn, acquired Singapore-based Northwest Executive Education in a cash-and-equity deal for an undisclosed amount. Northeast Executive offers programmes from universities such as MIT, Berkeley, Yale, UCLA among others.
Late in March, upskilling firm Seekho.ai also raised a pre-Series A funding of $3 million (around Rs 23 crore) from Seqouia Capital India’s Surge and the family office of JM Financial Group.