We are investing in saasguru!

We will be joining CEO and co-founder, Amit Choudhary, and the saasguru team on their journey to solve the worsening cloud skills shortage. In APAC alone, the need for advanced cloud computing skills is forecast to triple by 2025, requiring 109M individuals with those skills from a base of 37M in 2020. Just a few months after being founded in Sydney, we are thrilled to be leading Saasguru's AUD1.3M pre-seed round, with investment from BlackNova VC.

The problem

The need for talent in cloud services is exploding and cloud providers can’t keep up with demand. To alleviate this problem, most cloud vendors like AWS and Salesforce are building learning portals themselves to help workers upskill along with extensive certification pathways that helps employers identify and recruit for that talent.

Certifications from cloud vendors provide multiple benefits to employees from increasing the probability of being recruited to gaining a significant jump in salary. Before Saasguru, companies offering cloud training and certification prep often took a digital textbook-like approach and offered little to no personalisation in the learning experience. This meant individuals had to dedicate months at a time to studying or rote-learning content in preparation for the certification exam and even then, many felt not equipped to pass on their first go. In some instances, individuals would resort to buying summary guides, mock exams or question dumps. Enter Saasguru.

What is Saasguru?

Saasguru is a workforce and skills-focused ed-tech focused on helping individuals learn cloud skills and pass their certification with a tailored learning journey that matches their speed and proficiency. They combine personalised learning with 1:1 mentoring from a global community of gurus.

Since launching the platform mid-2021, Saasguru has served close to 2,000 learners from 20 different countries and over 100 have passed their certification exam on their first go so far. They have also partnered with over 20 cloud consulting companies to help them accelerate the upskilling and cloud certification journey of new hires.

How it works:

• Benchmarks your knowledge and certification readiness for the cloud certification you’re seeking
• Creates a personalised learning plan
• Helps you stay on course with insights and nudges
• Enables intuitive revision and exam-like practice
• Connects you with a community of peers and gurus

Saasguru is a social-impact focused organisation, partnering with several not-for-profits across India, Middle East and Australia who are providing cloud upskilling to help disadvantaged groups get employed, improve their career prospects, or come back to the workforce.

Meet the team

Co-founder and CEO Amit Choudhary:

Amit has lived the problem of needing to train people on the cloud. He has been in IT consulting for over 20 years, and in 2014 founded SaaSFocus, a Salesforce consultancy that he scaled to 350 people and successfully exited to a Fortune 200 company. Having previously worked in the United States, India, Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand, Amit has a global perspective and a rich background in cloud services. As CEO of Saasguru, Amit handles the strategic and outreach side of the business, allowing him to have first-hand experience with users and gurus alike.

Co-founder and COO Atif Saad:

Atif is Amit’s right hand – he joined SaaSFocus as COO, to run consulting and operations 5 years ago and co-founded Saasguru with Amit earlier this year. With 20 years of tech experience across three continents, Atif handles the product development and community engagement of the business. The two co-founders have a shared vision and a trusted relationship forged over many years.

Where to now?

Saasguru’s purpose is to be a social-impact focused global Ed Tech leader, supporting professionals to embark on new careers in cloud or progress their existing career, particularly in developing countries. After 6 months of operation, Saasguru already has 5 of the most popular Salesforce certification exams covered and its first ServiceNow certification exam. The team is looking to quickly expand the product offering including other cloud providers like AWS, Azure, Automation Anywhere and Workday.

Find out more at https://www.saasguru.co/

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