SAASGURU - an edtech providing cloud skills and certification - Founded a year ago with seed funds of $1.3m ,- have raised a seed round of $4 million from Square Peg , Blacknova and Antler - to further build out the company’s technology stack.
The team have done it before!
Amit Choudhary (CEO) and Atif Saad (CTO) sold their previous venture Saasfocus to US IT firm Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) in 2018.
What is Saasguru
Founded in mid-2021, Saasguru is an e-learning platform where more than 40,000 users from 20 different countries are upskilled by studying cloud systems From 20 different cloud consulting companies and mentors and a personalised TikTok style micro-learning platform.
Through Saasguru, the co-founders are looking to train the next generation of workers that will
require cloud computing skills in their careers.
In his previous salesforce consultancy SaaSFocus, Choudhury would hire new recruits and train them to become skilled and billable consultants. This has become the “secret sauce” of SAASGURU”
What SAASGURU does
- provide certifications on AWS and Salesforce
- an initial benchmarking exam,
- tools that adapt to the individual’s learning style and knowledge gaps,
- a gamified platform showing how they stack up against their peers and offering challenges.
- A network of more than 100 experienced ‘gurus’ share snippets of advice via short TikTok-style videos.
- Once the learner’s dashboard is green, they’re ready to take their certification exam.
For those that have used the platform for as little as two weeks, pass rates are currently at about 90%!
The Market
According to Amazon Web Services (AWS), the need for cloud computing skills in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region alone will triple by 2025, requiring about 109 million individuals with those skills from a base of 37 million as of 2020.
Since 2021, the company has added a variety of learning programs to its platform covering Salesforce, ServiceNow, AWS, GCP and Azure.
Saasguru says it plans to use the investment to expand into more high-demand cloud certifications.
Business Insider talks to Choudhury
“We want to play a leading role in solving the global cloud skills crisis and supercharge cloud skilling and certification,”
“Edtech has become an e-commerce like experience for users. All users are getting is an overload of content with aggressive subscription models.”
“Saasguru is disrupting that with a personalised learning experience, supported by our gurus and leading to a very tangible outcome of skills, certifications and jobs.”
“While we are a for profit, and a for-impact company,”
“We provide pro bono cloud skilling and certification for people from a situation of disadvantage to change their life with future-ready skills.”
“Over the next five years we want to become the most loved and trusted platform for anyone looking at starting or growing a career in the cloud industry.”
“Securing the backing from Square Peg will be invaluable in providing support and contacts, and lends a certain credibility to the business.”
Business Insider speaks to Square Peg
Square Peg Capital principal Lucy Tan also acknowledged the role Saasguru might play in satisfying demand for skilled cloud computing workers.
“There is a massive cloud skills shortage in the industry that is slowing down digital transformation initiatives undertaken by businesses,” Tan said.
“Universities are not well equipped to solve this skills shortage as the skills update so quickly. This means post-university upskilling is critical for continued business growth and Saasguru provides a personalised learning pathway for cloud professionals to embark on, helping them get skilled and certified in cloud technologies.
“This can make a meaningful impact on people’s lives from either landing them in a new career or getting salary increases. We’re excited to continue to work with Amit, Atif, and the team on their journey to help close the skills gap in the cloud computing industry and empower millions of workers to take on new careers.”
Between remote working and learning, and a tech skills crisis, people in this space seems to be in the right place at the right time .
NEXTTECH Learning are excited by the opportunity
Welcome to the Nexttech Revolution
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