YC-backed Skill-Lync raises $17.5 million in funding led by Iron Pillar

Skill-Lync, an engineering-focused edtech startup, has raised $17.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Iron Pillar. Existing investors Y Combinator and Better Capital, as well as angels Binny Bansal, Sai Krishnamurthy, and Rashmi Kwatra, took part in this funding round.

According to a release from the company, the proceeds will be used to build an alternative platform for engineering education with job-leading interdisciplinary courses, as well as to expand into new geographies.

The proceeds will be used to build an alternative platform for engineering education with job-leading interdisciplinary courses, as well as to expand into new geographies.

Skill-Lync, which was founded in 2018 by Sarangarajan V. Iyengar and Suryanarayanan P., offers industry-relevant courses in mechanical, electrical, civil, and computer science engineering to students in India and around the world. With its various interdisciplinary and job-oriented courses, the company aims to bridge the ever-widening gap between what industries expect and what engineering students are capable of.

“The rapid adoption of new technologies by industries has also created a need for constant upskilling of engineering professionals,” Suryanarayanan P, who is also the chief executive of Skill-Lync, said. “Hence, the need of the hour is to have engineers who have knowledge of both engineering fundamentals and how they can be applied to solve real-world engineering problems through engineering design and simulation tools.”

The company offers quality and application-based learning in Indian undergraduate engineering education, and the platform has the highest course completion rates in these course categories. Its courses range in price from Rs 10,000 for introductory courses to Rs 2.45 lakh for an eight-month Master's program.

“Engineering education and upskilling outside of computer science has seen very little digital disruption over the last two decades,” said Iron Pillar’s managing partner Anand Prasanna. “This, combined with the ever-expanding need for real-world interdisciplinary applications of engineering in today’s world, creates a unique opportunity to establish a multi-billion-dollar global company with deep moats in this space.”

“This is also a strong beachhead for expansion into multiple adjacent areas,” he added.

Skill-Lync claims to have worked with over 800 industry experts to create their existing course content and has full-time employees with experience with companies such as Bosch, Cummins, ABB, Samsung, and Accenture to provide students with a better learning experience.

Skill Lync has raised a total of $150K in two rounds of funding. Their most recent funding came on August 19, 2019, in the form of a Seed round, according to Crunchbase.

In India, AttainU and Ekeeda are two of the best alternatives to Skill-Lync for autonomous engineering courses. In 2021, Indian edtech startups raised nearly $2.3 billion. Byju's is the most valuable, with over $1.5 billion, followed by Unacademy's $440 million. UpGrad, Classplus, and Teachmint are also on the list.

Also Read:

• Veera Health raises $3 million led by Surge and Global Founders Capital

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