iMocha, a digital skills assessment platform for upskilling and recruitment, on Thursday announced it has secured $14 million in a Series A financing round led by global investment firm Eight Roads Ventures. 

The Pune-based iMocha, formerly known as Interview Mocha, aims to use the funds that it raised at an undisclosed valuation to boost its skill library selection, reach more global enterprises, and expand its partnership base within the HR tech ecosystem. The capital raise comes in the backdrop of a growing demand for automation, digitisation, and adoption of remote work accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The company, co-founded in 2015 by former IBM executives Amit Mishra and Sujit Karpe, enables employers to assess individual skills proficiency with job-role based assessments for both recruitment and learning. Its software solutions leverage artificial intelligence (AI) simulators, interviewing tools, and talent analytics to help organisations find job-fit candidates, remotely and expeditiously.

“Without a skill assessment platform to help measure and scale their talent pool, businesses will quickly lose out on talented team members. At iMocha, we've built the broadest and deepest technology skills library in the world with measurable outcomes. Our partnership with Eight Roads gives us a great launching pad to serve every Fortune 500 customer needing a skill assessment platform,” iMocha CEO Amit Mishra said. 

In 2020, it had raised $600,000 from a clutch of investors, including Girish Mathrubootham, the CEO and co-founder of US-based SaaS startup Freshworks that had a blockbuster listing on Nasdaq in September last year.

Existing investors Upekkha and Better Capital also participated in the latest fundraise by the company, which has more than 300 clients globally, including Fujitsu, NICE, and Microsoft.  

Aditya Systla from Eight Roads Ventures and Prasanna Krishnamoorthy from Upekkha will join iMocha’s board of directors following the capital injection, it said in a statement. 

“Leveraging an expansive and unique skills database, iMocha’s AI-powered assessment platform has enabled organizations to make the talent management processes more robust and efficient. Over the past few years, Amit, Sujit and the entire iMocha team have built a unique SaaS platform helping companies stay ahead of the curve on talent management and we are thrilled to be their partners on this journey,” said Aditya Systla, Partner at Eight Roads Ventures.

iMocha’s library has over 2,000 assessments across a range of skills such as coding, data science, AI, machine learning, cybersecurity, enterprise applications, cloud computing, infrastructure management, application development, aptitude, and banking.