India’s Emversity doubles valuation as it scales workers AI can’t replace

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 first conceived the idea while working on test-preparation courses for entry-level government jobs. He noticed that applicants included engineers, MBAs, and even PhDs. Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages - part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector. Join the Disrupt 2026 Waitlist Add yourself to the Disrupt 2026 waitlist to be first in line when Early Bird tickets drop. Past Disrupts have brought Google Cloud, Netflix, Microsoft, Box, Phia, a16z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Hugging Face, Elad Gil, and Vinod Khosla to the stages - part of 250+ industry leaders driving 200+ sessions built to fuel your growth and sharpen your edge. Plus, meet the hundreds of startups innovating across every sector. “I started speaking to these learners,” he said. “Some of them had paid fees to private colleges and spent 16 to...

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