Ex-Dubai resident from India makes good selling tech startup to US-based UPSKLS
Shrevan Marath finds his UK-based startup has better prospects with US firm
Dubai: A former Dubai resident is hitting his strides in the startup world, with his UK-based firm being acquired by a company in Colorado, US.
Shrevan Marath was CEO at Work Simplr Ltd., a UK entity that is into virtual internship hosting and management solutions. The company that took over is UPSKLS, which specializes in on-demand work sourcing.
Marath did his schooling in Dubai, where his parents still reside. “While we felt that the technology was strong enough to stand on its own, unfortunately, the business model was not received as intended in the UK,” said Marath. “Thus, when an opportunity to join forces and venture into the US was presented, it looked to be a more welcoming market for our technology.”
The Work Simplr platform provides educational support for universities. It was built as an answer to the lack of opportunities, such as internship placement and work experience, for students during the pandemic.
“We built a platform that would enable universities to easily create virtual opportunities, manage the overall experience and monitor the outcome,” he added. “Since launch at the start of this year, the platform was only available in the UK.
“We saw our MVP (minimum viable product) piloted by Birmingham City University and Manchester Metropolitan University before the acquisition and move to the US.”
Work Simplr raised funds previously from an angel investor in the UAE back in 2018. The company raised another round in the UK in 2020 to support its pivoted model, again with another angel investor, this time from the UK. “We have also received grants in the UK during 2019-21.”
“Edtech platforms today are often solutions that support or promote academic training, while Work Simplr was built as a platform that would allow students to gain valuable work experience to support a career,” said the founder. “A clear differentiator is that we are focused on supporting students into the future of work which we know is remote/virtual. On the other side, the companies that we target are provided with a SAAS platform they can use to access an on-demand workforce of our students.
“This model would allow them to get a range of work done easier. Work Simplr provides a ‘concierge’ type solution with round-the-clock support to help scoping, matchmaking and management with ease.
“As a result our software as a service platform would allow these companies to focus their employees on important business focused tasks while Work Simplr takes care of the other work.”