Microfinance Focus, November 9, 2011: India’s employability assessment company Aspiring Minds has raised Series A funding from Omidyar Network. Aspiring Minds will use the funding to extend its offerings to new verticals and expand to new geographies. The company is pioneering multiple efforts to create employability standards, human capital assessment and labor inclusion in India.

Aspiring Minds’ Computer Adaptive Test (AMCAT), the company’s flagship product, provides standardized employability benchmarks to students and enables employers to evaluate students for effective job placement.

Jayant Sinha, Partner, Omidyar Network India, will join the Board of Directors. Mr. DS Brar will participate in the round alongside Omidyar Network. Currently the chairman of GVK Biosciences, Mr. Brar served as CEO of Ranbaxy until 2004. He was a Director at Reserve Bank of India until 2007.

More than 75 companies use Aspiring Minds’ recruitment solutions, including HCL, Sapient, Ericsson, ITC, SBI Life, Nokia, Keane, and Accor Hotels. Aspiring Minds has aided over 12,000 freshers to get a job on merit in the last year.

Omidyar Network is a philanthropic investment firm dedicated to harnessing the power of markets to create opportunity for people to improve their lives. To date, Omidyar Network has committed more than $450 million to for-profit companies and non-profit organizations that foster economic advancement and encourage individual participation across multiple investment areas, including microfinance, property rights, consumer internet, mobile and government transparency.