As AI automates parts of the workforce, Indian workforce training startup Emversity is building a talent pipeline for roles that it believes cannot be replaced, and has raised $30 million in a new round to scale work-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 Bengaluru-based startup Z47, which was announced on Thursday. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that the funding values Embercity at about $120 million post-money, up from about $60 million in a pre-Series A round in April 2025. Total funding currently stands at $46 million.
India suffers from a widening skills gap, with graduates often entering the workforce without job-ready skills, even as key service sectors struggle to recruit trained staff. In the medical field, the Indian government has announced that there are approximately 4.3 million registered nursing personnel in India, with 5,253 nursing institutions producing approximately 387,000 nurses annually, but recent reports continue to point out a shortage. The hospitality industry also faces a 55% to 60% gap between employee demand and supply, according to industry estimates.
Embercity aims to fill that gap by integrating employer-planned training programs into university curricula and partnering with the Indian government’s National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) to run short-term certification and job placement skills centres.
The two-year-old startup partners with 23 universities across more than 40 campuses and focuses on “grey-collar” roles, such as nurses, physical therapists, and medical laboratory technicians, which require hands-on training and certification, as well as hospitality roles, such as guest relations and food and beverage services.
Embercity has trained about 4,500 learners and introduced 800 candidates to date, founder and CEO Vivek Sinha (pictured above) said in an interview.
Sinha, who served as chief operating officer at Indian edtech startup Unakamy for more than three years before founding Embercity in 2023, told TechCrunch that he came up with the idea while working on a test prep course for entry-level government jobs. He noticed that applicants included engineers, MBAs, and even PhDs.
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“I started talking to these learners,” he said. “Some paid tuition to private universities and took 16 to 18 years to complete their degrees.”
Sinha said this gap has widened in recent years and could widen further as automation and new workplace tools change what employers expect from entry-level hires, but demand remains strong in qualified occupations such as health care, where on-the-job training and staffing rates remain important.
“AI can reduce administrative tasks for nurses, such as submitting patient details and electronic medical records,” Sinha said. “But if you still need a nurse for every two beds in the ICU, AI will not replace nurses.”
Embercity works with employers such as Fortis Healthcare, Apollo Hospitals, Aster, KIMS, IHCL (Taj Hotels), and Lemon Tree Hotels to co-design role-specific training modules and help universities incorporate them into their degree programs. The startup does not charge fees to employers, instead making money through commissions paid by partner institutions and short-term certification programs run at NSDC-affiliated skill centers.
Sinha said the startup operates on a gross margin of about 80% and keeps customer acquisition costs to less than 10% of revenue by relying primarily on organic channels rather than performance marketing.
He added that the startup, which provides a career counseling platform for high school students, received more than 350,000 inquiries and accounted for more than 20% of its revenue last year.
With the new funding, Embercity plans to expand its footprint to more than 200 locations over the next two years and expand into new industries such as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and manufacturing, while deepening its focus on healthcare and hospitality. Sinha said the company is already in advanced discussions with one of India’s top EPC companies to design and roll out a role-specific program this year, and plans to start manufacturing-focused training next year.
To deliver consistent outcomes across campus, Embercity combines employer-driven curriculum design with a hands-on training infrastructure that includes simulation labs for clinical roles such as nursing and emergency medicine.
Mr. Sinha said Embercity’s revenue last year was split almost evenly between university-incorporated training programs and short-term certification courses run by the company’s skills centers.
While Embercity is currently building a talent pipeline for domestic employers, there is an opportunity for the startup to eventually meet international demand as well, particularly in the healthcare sector, as markets such as Japan and Germany have aging populations and demand trained workers, Sinha said. However, he did not provide an exact timeline for meeting global demand.
Embercity has approximately 700 employees, including 200 to 250 trainers located across its campus network.
