Online makeup and beauty learning platform Airblack on Tuesday said that it has raised $5.2 million as a part of its Series A round co-led by Info Edge Ventures and Elevation Capital.
The round also saw participation from Atelier Ventures and Better Capital, along with a clutch of angel investors including – Kunal Shah, founder, CRED; Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, co-founders, Meesho; Sujeet Kumar, co-founder, Udaan; Utsav Soman, partner, AngelList India and Ashish Gupta, managing director, Helion Ventures and an early investor in Flipkart.
According to the company, the proceeds of this funding will be utilized in accelerating the expansion of launching new clubs for users and investing in product, engineering and brand. The company is looking to actively hire across functions of engineering, design and operations.
Founded in 2019, Airblack helps people upskill and become micro-entrepreneurs in the beauty skilling market through “do-it-together” (DIT) courses. Curated experts present these courses live in a workshop format and enable hundreds of participants to learn in an interactive manner.
Since their pivot towards this segment last year, over 25,000 learners have attended these courses across more than 500 cities. A majority of these are women who have since become freelancers, online creators or home-salon owners, the company said.
“The Instagram and Youtube revolution has made people aware that there are hundreds of ways to earn a livelihood. Traditional edtech is just the tip of the iceberg and has been limited to a few skills. We foresee more than 100 million people becoming digital creators and freelancers in India in the next five years. At Airblack, we are fueling this economy by empowering people to learn a practical skill in a fraction of time and cost of traditional education and launch their livelihoods on the internet,” said Videt Jaiswal, founder and chief executive officer, Airblack.
The platform claims that it clocks over 45,000 hours of live classes every month that are supplemented by take-home assignments.
“The future of work is going to look very different for Millennials and Gen-Z. A perfect storm of new aspirations, decline of old career choices, and new opportunities are brewing. India is already home to the second-largest freelancer community in the world, and covid has only accelerated this trend. We believe that Airblack is well placed to become the learning and enablement brand for millions of internet-first entrepreneurs in the coming decade,” said Vaas Bhaskar, vice president, Elevation Capital.
At present, Airblack has long-duration courses with a timeline ranging from 30 days to 120 days, while the fees start from ₹10,000. Short-duration courses can range from 1 day to 5 days with fees as low as ₹150
“We are thrilled to partner with Videt and the team at Airblack. Their obsession with product and customer experience has led to amazing organic traction for their beauty and makeup courses. Globally, people are increasingly becoming keen to stay independent and follow their passion and it’s heartening to see Airblack empowering and skilling thousands of entrepreneurs and freelancers, mainly women, to convert their passion into an income-earning opportunity,” said Kitty Aggarwal, partner, Info Edge Ventures.
Airblack recently added senior members to its team, who have previously worked in firms including WhiteHatJr, Bain & Co and Oyo. Over 75% of Airblack’s 100-member team comprises women, with 50% in leadership roles.
