Career Discovery Platform Mentoria raises INR 1.5 crore from IAN & Others
Mentoria, a career discovery platform that helps students and early-career professionals discover themselves and their ideal career paths, has raised Rs 1.5 crore from Indian Angel Network in a pre-Series A round of funding (IAN).
The round was also attended by notable investors such as Jayant Mehrotra, who recently retired as CFO of the Lodha Group, and Pradeep Jaisingh, Chairman of HealthStart India.
The newly injected capital will be used by the Mumbai-based startup to scale up its technology and product, marketing efforts, and the platform's career communities.
The startup is also considering developing new products, gamifying their content, and developing customised information pathways to help both students and working professionals understand what it takes to get into their shortlisted/desired careers.
“Most students, in India and globally, end up in courses and careers they will later detest/be suboptimal in. We believe that India’s potential demographic dividend might turn into a disaster if square pegs continue being forced into round holes. No amount of skill development or education can solve the problem of people choosing the wrong career or education path. So, through Mentoria, we are on a quest to transform India and, eventually, the world by enabling millions of people to make informed and ideal career decisions,” Co-founder and CEO Nikhar Arora said.
“We intend to create a platform that is the Google of Careers and we are glad to receive support from IAN and marquee investors who have become a part of our journey,” Nikhar added.
Mentoria, founded in 2015 by Nikhar Arora and his co-founders Dr Ashish Arora and Juie Divecha, claims to have 12,000+ career options available today. Based on the results of a psychometric assessment, the platform uses Artificial Intelligence to recommend a list of ideal career paths for a user.
This is followed by an online career counselling session with trained and certified career counsellors, as well as access to Mentoria's Knowledge Gateway, which contains information on 850+ different careers, 3,000+ colleges and universities, and 100+ hours of mentorship content from experts and professionals across careers and industries.
Mentors on the Mentoria platform guide users from the moment they sign up until they begin working in a career that they have discovered or are passionate about.
“With over 12,000 career options available today and 800 million jobs forecasted to vanish by 2030 due to automation, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, it becomes overwhelming, extremely challenging and stressful for any individual to make his or her career choice. Using AI, Mentoria will play a game-changing role in mentoring and guiding millions to step into a career they’re passionate about,” added Jayant Mehrotra, Lead Investor at Indian Angel Network.
So far, the startup has helped over 81,000 students/working professionals, 50+ corporates such as Axis Bank, Aditya Birla Capital, L&T Technology Services, and others, as well as 50 schools, become career-ready.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the company grew fourfold between FY20 and FY21. Through their mobile application, they have also built a community of 250+ counsellors and 'counsellorpreneurs' — counsellors looking to build/scale their own business using Mentoria's tools.
The round was also attended by notable investors such as Jayant Mehrotra, who recently retired as CFO of the Lodha Group, and Pradeep Jaisingh, Chairman of HealthStart India.
The newly injected capital will be used by the Mumbai-based startup to scale up its technology and product, marketing efforts, and the platform's career communities.
The startup is also considering developing new products, gamifying their content, and developing customised information pathways to help both students and working professionals understand what it takes to get into their shortlisted/desired careers.
“Most students, in India and globally, end up in courses and careers they will later detest/be suboptimal in. We believe that India’s potential demographic dividend might turn into a disaster if square pegs continue being forced into round holes. No amount of skill development or education can solve the problem of people choosing the wrong career or education path. So, through Mentoria, we are on a quest to transform India and, eventually, the world by enabling millions of people to make informed and ideal career decisions,” Co-founder and CEO Nikhar Arora said.
“We intend to create a platform that is the Google of Careers and we are glad to receive support from IAN and marquee investors who have become a part of our journey,” Nikhar added.
Mentoria, founded in 2015 by Nikhar Arora and his co-founders Dr Ashish Arora and Juie Divecha, claims to have 12,000+ career options available today. Based on the results of a psychometric assessment, the platform uses Artificial Intelligence to recommend a list of ideal career paths for a user.
This is followed by an online career counselling session with trained and certified career counsellors, as well as access to Mentoria's Knowledge Gateway, which contains information on 850+ different careers, 3,000+ colleges and universities, and 100+ hours of mentorship content from experts and professionals across careers and industries.
Mentors on the Mentoria platform guide users from the moment they sign up until they begin working in a career that they have discovered or are passionate about.
“With over 12,000 career options available today and 800 million jobs forecasted to vanish by 2030 due to automation, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, it becomes overwhelming, extremely challenging and stressful for any individual to make his or her career choice. Using AI, Mentoria will play a game-changing role in mentoring and guiding millions to step into a career they’re passionate about,” added Jayant Mehrotra, Lead Investor at Indian Angel Network.
So far, the startup has helped over 81,000 students/working professionals, 50+ corporates such as Axis Bank, Aditya Birla Capital, L&T Technology Services, and others, as well as 50 schools, become career-ready.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, the company grew fourfold between FY20 and FY21. Through their mobile application, they have also built a community of 250+ counsellors and 'counsellorpreneurs' — counsellors looking to build/scale their own business using Mentoria's tools.
