The traditional education system in India often limits choices, leaving students feeling stuck in paths they did not choose. Recognizing this disconnect, MyCaptain set out to bridge the gap by providing a platform where students can explore various fields of interest beyond the traditional options. On its mission, MyCaptain recently raised INR 14 Crore in funding from Inflection Point Ventures, MyNavi, Piper Serica, Super Capital, and Ankur Capital.
With the recent investment, MyCaptain aims to establish 4+ regional sales centers and improve their course offerings with 50+ beginner courses and 5+ placement readiness programs. Through this step, the platform wants to make its programs more accessible to more potential students, ensuring that people from different areas and needs have access to quality career training and mentorship.
Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, of Inflection Point Ventures says, “Digital era has brought sweeping transformation across all industries. However, the education sector remains the same. While traditional fields like medicine, engineering, and CA remain vital, they cannot sustain the demands of modern society. There is an urgent need for individuals proficient in web design, social media management, content writing & digital marketing strategies, yet these courses are far from being integrated into mainstream education.
MyCaptain addresses the gap by offering courses like Artificial Intelligence, Business Analytics Course, Digital Marketing, and more to ensure students are well-prepared for the evolving professional landscape. With the Indian Ed-tech market projected to reach 10.4 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, MyCaptain’s focus on practical skill development positions it as a leader in creating an Ed-tech platform that focuses on job readiness compared to others that focus on pre-K-12 and K-12 segment.”
The startup has an average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 50+ across its offerings and last year alone, MyCaptain helped over 1300 learners to receive placements in areas like Content Writing, Digital Marketing, and UI/UX Design, going over the industry average by 35% in terms of CTC. Additionally, their innovative hybrid learning model has seen 25% of students secure jobs within one month of completing the program.
With over 50 million college graduates and early professionals looking for careers beyond just coding, the market MyCaptain is tapping into is worth $30 billion. Moreover, their strong social media presence, with over 15 million interactions every month, helps them to attract new students at a lower cost compared to other companies.
The start-up also offers a full package for careers, including tools to help with job placement like a special job board and practice interviews using AI. Currently, the startup gets more than 2000 new students every month, for both beginner and more advanced placement programs.
Hidekazu Ito, Managing Director, Mynavi says, “Mynavi has been focusing on addressing and resolving challenges that India faces today, especially Human Resources and Education space in order to achieve our group vision “Navigate Your Best” which means we want to support people’s any turning points.
MyCaptain is an upskilling education platform for higher education space to support those who struggle to get job opportunities or aspirational students/young professionals for career growth. We believe that their sustained growth will make a positive impact on the freshers or young professionals hiring segment in India. Also, we believe this partnership can be leveraged to the Japanese hiring scene.”
MyCaptain: Helping People To Forge Their Path
MyCaptain is an ed-tech startup that aims to provide everyone a chance to pursue a career in the field passionate about. With a full-stack career platform, the platform helps in guiding through the early stages of a career. The start-up is filled with courses that are meant for discovering and exploring different career paths, as well as specialized Job-focused boot camps that can be taken in-person or online.
Founded in 2016 by the trio, Mohammed Zeeshan as CEO, Sameer Ramesh as CLO, and Ruhan Naqash as COO, MyCaptain is a specialized career training that helps students get practical experience along with theoretical knowledge. Each of the founders has a bachelor’s degree in technology and has a Special Mention in the Forbes 30 Under 30 List.
The start-up not only focuses on full-time jobs but also freelance opportunities and internships and has already trained over 250,000 students in fields like content creation, design, visual arts, finance, and business with many of their graduates have gone on to become successful entrepreneurs, writers, designers, filmmakers, financial analysts, and more.
Mohammed Zeeshan, Co-Founder & CEO of MyCaptain says, “With this fresh round of funding, we continue our focus on building out a full stack career platform for your early career journey. Our platform has courses designed for career discovery and exploration as well as Job Focussed Bootcamps being run in Classroom Centres and Online.
We crossed 20,000+ enrollments across our courses and will be ending with Rs 31Cr in booking revenue in FY 23/24. Our next focus is to reach 50,000+ yearly enrollments in our courses and Rs 100 Cr in bookings by FY 25/26.”
The Journey of MyCaptain
The journey of MyCaptain started in a casual hostel room discussion among friends, where they talked about topics from astronomy to politics, and through this conversation, they realized a shared frustration: the lack of opportunity to pursue what they wanted outside the traditional fields.
“This is a core problem that every youth in India faces. We faced it, our seniors had faced it, and our juniors will face it. We wanted to go out there and do something about it. That’s how MyCaptain started.” Said Founder Mohammed Zeeshan.
However, before starting MyCaptain, the team experimented with multiple products and initiatives like a magazine for school students, events, and conferences and these ideas helped them understand the landscape and develop the platform.
In December 2014, the team finally formed MyCaptain where they hoped to build a platform that would offer mentorship and guidance to students, allowing them to explore and excel in their chosen fields. MyCaptain officially launched in February 2015 and they sold all their workshops within just two days of the launch.
Moving forward, the team instead of investing large amounts in the beginning decided to invest time in building a market-viable product by mentoring through live online sessions, using platforms like WizIQ for delivery, WhatsApp groups for communication, and sharing learning materials through Google Drive. The team did not spend money on the product till 2016.
They started by getting their first 200 paying students at an Entrepreneurship Festival at SRM and from that point on, they got more students through referrals and personal contacts. Leveraging their networks from AIESEC, they launched a Campus Ambassador Program and through these ambassadors promoted MyCaptain in colleges.
Apart from focussing on offline channels, they also ran Google and Facebook campaigns and before their product was fully ready, they used Google Forms for ads and made INR 1.2L in revenue, according to an interview published in Medium. Now, the platform has evolved to include Job-Focused Bootcamps, which can be accessed both in-person at Classroom Centres and online, and has over 250,000 learners already trained and ready to pursue their dream careers.
“Over the years, we have seen industries evolve, and opportunities go to those who have skills. And everyone needs a guide to help them navigate through these changes. And that’s where I see MyCaptain truly shine.” Said Sameer Ramesh Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of MyCaptain.
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