Z47 & Lightspeed Lead Emversity’s $5mn Pre-Series A

At Z47, we love founders building for India@2047—foundational companies solving hard problems with speed and ambition. That’s why we backed Vivek Sinha & Emversity early in their mission to bridge the gap between degrees & jobs in India. And that’s why we’re doubling down on Vivek Sinha and the team at Emversity, leading their $5 million Pre-Series A with our friends at Lightspeed, and participation from Alteria Capital and Innoven Capital. 

Emversity, the flagship product of Beyond Odds Technologies, bridges the skilled-workforce gap in nation-building industries by embedding work-integrated, technology-driven training into degree programs at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Its unique model tackles what Sinha calls the “three-pronged problem” in the higher-education-to-workforce pipeline: capacity shortage, inaccessibility due to prohibitive fees and misaligned curriculum. Starting with healthcare and now expanding into hospitality, Emversity has scaled to 36 campuses across 18 states in 2024, the team is on track to hit 75+ campuses by 2025.

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“Millions of roles in healthcare, hospitality and construction lie vacant, while one-third of graduates remain unemployed,” Vivek Sinha, Founder at Emversity said. “Our employer-sponsored stipend model solves accessibility; industry co-designed curriculum ensure relevance; and our Centres of Excellence expand capacity.” On growth ambitions, he added, “In a sector full of broken promises, quality and outcomes are our biggest differentiators. We stay obsessed with best-in-class training and employment results; scale will follow.”

Rajat Agarwal, Managing Director at Z47, led the investment, alongside Chandrasekhar Venugopal, Principal at Z47. Chandrasekhar commented, “Rajat and I are privileged to partner with Vivek & the team at Emversity as they take on this hard, but critical problem facing the country. From the first meeting, Vivek’s insight on fixing the education-employment gap through a job relevant pedagogy stood out. In under a year, he’s taken Emversity from this insight to national scale, with real outcomes and smart unit economics. At Z47 we are thrilled to go deeper on this journey with Vivek as Emversity scales in size and impact.”

Emversity’s roundtable discussion on Bridging the Gap Between Healthcare Education and Hospital Needs hosted in association with Z47

Under the ‘Emversity School of Allied Health Sciences’, students train for roles such as nurses, therapists, caregivers, OT technicians, lab technicians, paramedics and other allied-health professionals. The newly launched ‘Emversity School of Hospitality’ has partnered with two of the world’s largest hotel chains to offer skill-based training in rooms, F&B service, and culinary at nine campuses starting this year.

Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed, added:
“Vivek and his team are bridging a systemic gap between education and employment by aligning training infrastructure with real industry demand, creating a more job ready workforce for critical sectors. What excites me the most is the non-linear impact Emversity can unlock by connecting global demand with the talent pipeline that they are developing.”

From the outset, Emversity stood out—not just for the scale of the opportunity, but for Vivek’s deep insight into the problem, his speed of execution, and his conviction around outcomes over optics. With millions of young Indians entering the workforce and entire industries starved for talent, Emversity’s mission is more relevant than ever—and we’re excited for what comes next.

About Emversity
Emversity is an employability-focused, tech-enabled training and recruitment platform for skilled grey-collar jobs in sectors such as healthcare and hospitality. Emversity operates two flagship programs: SMART – a work-integrated skilling product enabling students to earn while they learn, delivered through Emversity’s own 22 training centres – and EDGE – a partnership model with 14 leading universities to upgrade their UG/PG programs into industry-relevant, tech-enabled, application-oriented degrees.

Both SMART and EDGE programs are powered by smart classrooms, state-of-the-art skills labs, and virtual reality simulation labs. Students also receive internship and placement opportunities with top employers such as Fortis Hospitals, Manipal Hospitals, Narayana Health, NephroPlus (in healthcare), and IHCL and Radisson Hotel Group (in hospitality).

Emversity recently launched a healthcare awareness web series titled "Emergency Room" in collaboration with Rusk Media. Website: www.emversity.com

About Z47
Z47 is a “founders-first” venture capital firm with an AUM of $3.5 billion, spanning over 100 investments since 2006. Our commitment is to founders who are determined to lead India to its destiny as a developed nation by 2047. Z47’s investment focus includes FinTech, Consumer Brands & Tech, B2B Commerce & Manufacturing, and Enterprise & AI. We are proud partners to Dailyhunt, Five Star Business Finance, Ola, Ola Electric, OfBusiness, Razorpay as well as Country Delight, GoKwik, Mosaic Wellness, The Whole Truth, and Zupee Gaming among others. Z47 has offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. For more information, visit www.z47.com or write to newsroom@z47.com.