The Bengaluru-based skilling assessment platform Equip. co has secured a $400K pre-seed round. The cash injection would be provided by Better Capital.

Vaibhav Domkundwar, Better Capital, said, “We are making skill assessments 100X easier with Equip and putting it everywhere it’s needed without forcing users to go on different workflows and journeys. We are excited to be the founding stage partner to Equip.”

The startup was founded in August 2020 by Jayanth Neelakanta, A PhD in theoretical physics who came back to India to create EdTech products. The company aims to streamline recruitment through automated tests across multiple skills.

The skilling startup’s funding comes at a time when many technological platforms are finding new ways to streamline and automate resume assessment systems. According to Equip, the candidate can take the assessment on Equip and the recruiter can use their score to screen them. Equip also claims that, on average, recruiters shortlist only the top 3% of the assessed candidates, saving 97% of their time.

"We are delighted to announce our first round of funding. As the name suggests, we want to equip recruiters with identifying great talent. Equip will not only help companies reduce the time and effort to hire, but also help them look beyond CVs and pedigree, and focus on candidates’ skills. We are confident that our significantly simpler UX and the variety of roles we test for will prove to be competitive advantages,” said Jayanth Neelakantha.