 "Prateek Shukla, co-founder and chief executive officer of Masai")
Job-tech platform Masai, which focuses on upskilling learners and improving their employability, aims to triple its revenue to around Rs 270 crore by FY26, while also expanding its footprint beyond India. The company is betting on two models — 'pay-after-placement' and 'pre-paid courses' — to drive this growth.
Speaking to Business Standard, Prateek Shukla, co-founder and chief executive officer of Masai, said that the company registered revenue of around Rs 100 crore in the last financial year (FY25) and plans to take it to Rs 270 crore by the end of the ongoing financial year. He added that the company, which has partnered with leading Indian institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), will also take its offerings to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
"We are keen to start outside India because IITs and IIMs are very reputed in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, not just with the Indian diaspora but also with the non-Indian diaspora. So, we are going to take our programmes global, but unlike other players, we will take Indian universities out and bring a global audience into them instead of collaborating with global universities," Shukla explained.
Under its pre-paid courses offering, the company has created learning programmes with 16 institutions like IITs, IIMs, and BITS (Birla Institute of Technology and Science). These courses are priced roughly around Rs 50,000 for six months and are ideal for working professionals.
As part of its second model, 'pay-after-placement', the platform doesn't charge any upfront fee; instead, it upskills learners on a full-time basis, and once they secure a placement via the same platform, learners start paying a fee in the form of equated monthly installments (EMIs) over three years.
"If a learner gets a job between Rs 3.5 lakhs per annum (lpa) to Rs 5 lpa, then the fee is capped at Rs 2.5 lakh rupees; if the job pays between Rs 5 lpa and Rs 10 lpa, then the fee is capped at Rs 3.5 lpa, and if the job pays more than Rs 10 lpa, then the fee is capped at Rs 4.5 lpa," Shukla explained.
To date, Masai has partnered with over 2,500 companies, including large corporate enterprises, publicly listed companies, and unicorns.
Masai has been profitable since January of this year and has raised $13 million in funding, including one in a Series B round from India Quotient and On Mauritius in 2022. On raising funds in the near-term, Shukla said, "We are profitable right now. There is no need for us to raise capital, although there is a lot of inbound interest, but we are not thinking of raising capital at the moment."
