Ed-tech company GreyAtom, founded in 2017 by Shweta Doshi, Mitul Thakkar and Mayuresh Shilotri, has raised a pre-series A round of $1.2 million. Montane Ventures has led this round along with participation from GreyAtom’s existing investor Pravega Ventures. Ritesh Arora, Co-founder & CEO BrowserStack also participated in this round in his personal capacity. GreyAtom enables aspiring learners to pivot careers in emerging technologies like Machine Learning, AI , Data Science and Full stack engineering through an end to end rigorous learning and career prep process.
Talking about the fundraise, Mitul Thakkar, Co-founder and CEO, GreyAtom said “Educational institutes haven’t been able to modify their curriculum so as to impart relevant skill sets to students. GreyAtom bridges the gap between learners and the industry by bringing them together on the learning platform Glabs that provides hands on coding experience, mentorship and access to a huge peer community. We plan to utilise the funds by diversifying our product line up to include courses for front end engineering, back end engineering, automation QA as well as expansion across India. The newer programs will be launched with an "Income Share Agreement" where there is no upfront payment to be made by the learners, only when they get a job ,they share a fixed percentage of their income with GreyAtom. This enables us to create a great amount of trust between us and the learners.”
"We are extremely excited to invest and join GreyAtom’s journey. The founder’s interest in education and their learning product Glabs impressed us the most", said Josh Bornstein, partner at Montane Ventures. Josh added, "GreyAtom's tech-first approach to skill learners beyond theory by focusing on application and practice enables the company to scale a business that's typically dependent on instructors or online videos."
GreyAtom’s goal is to become the go to credible alternative higher Education System in India and has taken a tech driven approach to learning. The learning platform, GLabs orchestrates the end to end learner experience - this is where people code up, follow a structured learning path and get an instant assessment of their performance. The right mix of a highly blended learning approach - online learning on the platform and offline interactions with mentors and peer community is what is driving outcomes for the learners.Learner engagement and gamification are elements that have been built into Glabs. Glabs also determines the employability index of a learner and matches a learner with the right job.
As per market research reports, Indian engineers fare poorly compared to their global counterparts in terms of their engineering skills and employability. Industry experts have said that 80%-90% Indian engineers are unfit to be hired across leading IT companies. This is despite the fact that over 15 lakh engineers graduate every year(AICTE data). The demand for professionals across the emerging tech spectrum has exploded over the last few years. However due to a lack of skills companies are unable to hire the requisite amount of professionals.
With the new Income share agreement model, GreyAtom is on a quest to transform the career trajectories for deserving and hardworking learners in the emerging tech space.They have seen an overwhelming response to their front end engineering program in Income share model.Since its launch in September 2019, more than 4700 folks have applied to do the program. The current acceptance rate is at 4.8%.
So far, GreyAtom has enabled more than 35,000 learners to reskill/upskill their tech knowledge. In the last 2 years, 87% of learners who were looking for a career pivot have been able to do so.
About the Founding Team
The founding team has a solid background in the tech space for over 15 years. Prior to GreyAtom, Mitul co-founded Customer360, that was acquired by Interactive Intelligence (NASDAQ- ININ). His strengths lie in being able to take an idea from concept to reality. Shweta has led large engagements in top tier technology companies in India and globally. After experiencing the challenges of hiring the right people firsthand, elevating the level of education in technology is at the core of her mission. Currently at GreyAtom, she spearheads building learning programs that are relevant to the industry and is growing an expert network of global mentors and strategic partners that lead to the final outcomes for learners.Co-founder of Customer360 prior to GreyAtom, Mayuresh drives the marketing strategy of GreyAtom with an expert hand. An alumnus of IIT Madras, Mayuresh’s strength lies in using off-the-cuff thinking to create rewarding and rich learning experiences.
Talking about the fundraise, Mitul Thakkar, Co-founder and CEO, GreyAtom said “Educational institutes haven’t been able to modify their curriculum so as to impart relevant skill sets to students. GreyAtom bridges the gap between learners and the industry by bringing them together on the learning platform Glabs that provides hands on coding experience, mentorship and access to a huge peer community. We plan to utilise the funds by diversifying our product line up to include courses for front end engineering, back end engineering, automation QA as well as expansion across India. The newer programs will be launched with an "Income Share Agreement" where there is no upfront payment to be made by the learners, only when they get a job ,they share a fixed percentage of their income with GreyAtom. This enables us to create a great amount of trust between us and the learners.”
"We are extremely excited to invest and join GreyAtom’s journey. The founder’s interest in education and their learning product Glabs impressed us the most", said Josh Bornstein, partner at Montane Ventures. Josh added, "GreyAtom's tech-first approach to skill learners beyond theory by focusing on application and practice enables the company to scale a business that's typically dependent on instructors or online videos."
GreyAtom’s goal is to become the go to credible alternative higher Education System in India and has taken a tech driven approach to learning. The learning platform, GLabs orchestrates the end to end learner experience - this is where people code up, follow a structured learning path and get an instant assessment of their performance. The right mix of a highly blended learning approach - online learning on the platform and offline interactions with mentors and peer community is what is driving outcomes for the learners.Learner engagement and gamification are elements that have been built into Glabs. Glabs also determines the employability index of a learner and matches a learner with the right job.
As per market research reports, Indian engineers fare poorly compared to their global counterparts in terms of their engineering skills and employability. Industry experts have said that 80%-90% Indian engineers are unfit to be hired across leading IT companies. This is despite the fact that over 15 lakh engineers graduate every year(AICTE data). The demand for professionals across the emerging tech spectrum has exploded over the last few years. However due to a lack of skills companies are unable to hire the requisite amount of professionals.
With the new Income share agreement model, GreyAtom is on a quest to transform the career trajectories for deserving and hardworking learners in the emerging tech space.They have seen an overwhelming response to their front end engineering program in Income share model.Since its launch in September 2019, more than 4700 folks have applied to do the program. The current acceptance rate is at 4.8%.
So far, GreyAtom has enabled more than 35,000 learners to reskill/upskill their tech knowledge. In the last 2 years, 87% of learners who were looking for a career pivot have been able to do so.
About the Founding Team
The founding team has a solid background in the tech space for over 15 years. Prior to GreyAtom, Mitul co-founded Customer360, that was acquired by Interactive Intelligence (NASDAQ- ININ). His strengths lie in being able to take an idea from concept to reality. Shweta has led large engagements in top tier technology companies in India and globally. After experiencing the challenges of hiring the right people firsthand, elevating the level of education in technology is at the core of her mission. Currently at GreyAtom, she spearheads building learning programs that are relevant to the industry and is growing an expert network of global mentors and strategic partners that lead to the final outcomes for learners.Co-founder of Customer360 prior to GreyAtom, Mayuresh drives the marketing strategy of GreyAtom with an expert hand. An alumnus of IIT Madras, Mayuresh’s strength lies in using off-the-cuff thinking to create rewarding and rich learning experiences.
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