GPT-3 and Speech AI powered Babblebots.ai Raises Funding from Founders of GupShup, Junglee.com, Others; Launches Voice Powered Interview Platform

Babblebots.ai, a first-of-its-kind interview platform powered by GPT-3 and Speech AI, has come out of stealth after a year of development and testing with early design partners. Battlebots' raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed round by Rakesh Mathur (Founder/Chairman Gupshup, and Founder Junglee acq. by Amazon), and Rishi Deshpande (Founder/CTO of Chalo, acq. by Booking) and a few HNIs. The company plans to raise a seed round to continue investing in a product-led-growth model and further develop the AI/ML capabilities to deepen its technical differentiation.
Founded in 2022 by Roli Gupta and a team of IIT Bombay Computer Science graduates, Babblebots.ai is revolutionising the recruitment and talent acquisition industry with its AI-Recruiters. Under the hood, Babblebots uses state-of-the-art voice technology, and conversational intelligence using proprietary AI algorithms and GPT-3 (the technology behind ChatGPT), to interview and assess candidates for both technical and non-technical roles. The AI-Recruiters conduct near human-like interviews using Long Form Conversation voice-bots in 20+ languages and are fully customizable for job roles, questions and company branding. This reduces hours spent in scheduling, and the number of interview rounds, thus increasing the speed of hiring.

Companies traditionally conduct 3-5 interview rounds to find the ideal candidate, and report spending more than 50% of their recruiting team’s time conducting screening interviews. This is a worldwide problem, and Babblebots is eyeing the $500B recruitment market globally.

Since its beta-launch in Q3 2022, the company’s AI-Recruiters have conducted thousands of interviews for trial partners and customers. These include enterprises like Mahindra Holidays (travel), LG Soft (electronics), Great Learning (Ed-tech), Paramount TPA (insurance), public institutes like IIT Bombay, and fast-growing startups like SustLabs and Oorjan. Data from these deployments show a 10x decrease in end-to-end hiring times, from 30 days down to as few as 3, and a 500% increase in the offer-to-interview ratio from ‘1-in-10’ to ‘1-in-2’. Meanwhile, job applicants have appreciated the flexibility of talking to AI-Recruiters anytime they want, without needing to schedule an interview. Additionally, one can try out an AI-Recruiter interview on the website to understand the conversational capabilities.

Babblebots’ AI-Recruiters can evaluate communication skills (e.g. English-speaking skill, energy level) using proprietary deep-learning AI models. They can also evaluate technical skills and domain-knowledge, by processing long-form conversation itself, thus going beyond traditional multiple-choice and coding challenges. A single, convenient, 15-minute interaction results in this comprehensive assessment, as well as information about candidate preferences, such as location, compensation expectations etc. Talent acquisition teams can listen to recorded conversations, and view assessment reports and transcripts at their convenience.

In a statement about the launch and funding, Roli, Founder, Babblebots.ai said, “The technology stack of the world is finally getting an AI shot-in-the-arm with GPT-3 and other generative AI models. We will see hundreds of AI applications power end-user applications which will make human-machine interactions delightful, like we are doing with our AI-Recruiters”

HR-Tech Startup Hirex.ai Raises Seed Fund from SucSEED Indovation Fund and CiE IIIT-Hyderabad

Hirex.ai Co-founders

SucSEED backs an AI powered online assessment and interview platform, Hirex.ai

hirex.ai, has secured Early Capital from SucSEED Indovation Fund and CiE IIIT-Hyderabad as part of its Seed round.

With the motto of “Accelerating talent assessments with Voice AI and automation”, hirex.ai aims to build a talent assessment platform for Millennials and Gen Z job seekers who are increasingly using Voice AI solutions for every day communication needs. Hirex.ai provides a no code Voice AI platform to conduct and score level one interviews at scale autonomously.

Unlike current assessment platforms, hirex.ai allows —

1. Talent Acquisition Groups (TAG) to conduct and score technical interviews without any human intervention.
2. TAG teams can conduct level one interviews to every candidate that applies for a job within 24 hrs.
3. Job seekers can take these interviews at a time convenient to them without any interview scheduling.

Ugendreshwar Kudupudi, the Co-Founder and CEO of hirex.ai said, “Traditional resume screening using keyword searching ignores a large talent pool as qualified job seekers don't update their resume with all the necessary keywords and buzzwords. By using Voice based BOT’s these job seekers can be autonomously interviewed and scored on the skill sets the company is looking for and move them to next rounds such as coding or personal interview automatically by the bot. Job seekers can use their natural voice while answering to the bot allowing them to have realistic conversation while giving the interview.”

He further added that “The seed funding we raised from SucSEED Indovation Fund and CiE IIIT-Hyderabad will help us expand our sales ef orts to reach more customers and improve the Voice AI capabilities of the platform to suite talent assessment requirements across multiple verticals in India”.

Speaking on why they have invested Vikrant Varshney Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said, “As per a report by Fortune Business Insights, the market size of HR Tech was USD 22.89 billion in 2020. It is projected to grow from $ 24.04 Bn in 2021 to $ 35.68 Bn in 2028 at a CAGR of 5.8% in the forecast period. Online recruitment has become a new norm as it automates Level 1 interviews for hiring and technology can dif erentiate in the new-age hybrid work culture. Hirex.ai is an AI powered online assessment and interview platform which helps recruiters conduct Level 1 (preliminary) screening of candidates without any human intervention.”

SucSEED Indovation Fund (SIF) is an AIF Cat-1 Venture Capital Angel Fund with ₹100 crore corpus and has grown out of SucSEED Angel Network (SAN) and IIITH Tech Ventures, an early-stage tech seed initiative with IIIT Hyderabad Foundation. General Partners of the Indovation Fund have 100+ years of cumulative experience within technology, fund management, and start-up ecosystem and have already invested in 60+ startups. SIF attempts to support Indian Innovation for mass needs in the following Six (6) sectors - EdTech, FinTech, Health-tech, Security & RegTech, Enterprise & MSME SaAS and Digital Economy & Emerging Tech.

About hirex.ai – 

hirex.ai is a no-code Voice AI platform to build voice-based bots that conduct and score level one technical interviews at scale. You could practically conduct 1000+ interviews in a single day without any human intervention.

hirex.ai believes solution and not features solve customer problems and hence have a comprehensive set of AI enabled tools such as,

• MCQ and Coding Interviews using AI proctoring and proxy candidate detection ● WhatsApp Chatbots for candidate engagement
• Resume parsing, indexing and search
• Interview reminder via bot-based phone calls
• Integrated to email providers like Outlook and Gmail
• Chrome plugin support for Job-boards and LinkedIn resume parsing
• RESTful API for HCM and HMS integration
• Agile ATS with automation support
• Staffing Vendor Management and many more
• Giving you a complete AI-enabled recruitment suite under a single dashboard.

Problem(s) that hirex.ai is addressing:

1. 70% of the job-seekers who apply for a job don't get interviewed and are ignored without proper screening.
2. Keyword based search dont give desired results if the resumes are not updated properly 3. Talent Acquisition Groups (TAG) don't have enough resources to conduct level one interviews at scale and hence use keywords based search as a selection criteria, which is ineffective.

Solution:

• Using Voice AI, TAG teams can now build Voice based bots and deploy them at scale based on requirements. Every job seeker in the funnel can give an interview with the Voice BOT within 24 hours of applying for a job without scheduling.
• TAG teams also get individual interview scores automatically done by the BOT and move them to appropriate rounds for follow-on interviews using our inbuilt ATS automatically.
• hirex.ai also provides coding, MCQ, assignments and remote interviews support in a single platform allowing TAG teams to have the 360 degree assessment and feedback of each candidate in one place.
• Job seekers are continuously updated using WhatsApp or email about their application status whenever they apply for a job and attend interviews on the platform without human intervention.

Founder’s Details –

Ugendreshwar Kudupudi (Co-founder & CEO) is a serial entrepreneur with over 20+ years of experience in pan-asia sales, technical marketing and product development. Worked in various startups and MNCs with over USD 100 million in sales revenue, generated from various semiconductor and critical networking solutions for OEM customers across Asia.

Sayyad Nayyaroddeen (Co-founder & CTO) is a IIIT-Hyderabad alum and worked in various startups in the FinTech and WorkTech domains. Has also filed for a patent in 2020 titled “A SYSTEM AND METHOD OF VOICE BASED INTERVIEW EVALUATION".

HR Tech Platform InstaHyre Continues to Move on an Exponential Growth Trajectory

Trusted hiring partner for more than 30 million job seekers and 10,000+ companies, the HR Tech platform has enjoyed a solid year of business growth in 2021 and is expecting continued growth in the current year as well.

Instahyre - an advanced AI-based hiring platform, has recently announced strong fiscal, customer and internal growth for FY21 as well as upcoming strategies for expanding business in 2022. The AI-powered hiring platform has grown 4x in the last year, witnessing most of its growth within the last 6-7 months attributable to the launch of its innovative hiring technologies and subsequent boost in sales.

Instahyre has recorded a solid year of business growth in FY21 that included a 4.2X increase in the revenue accompanied by an increase of staff to over 3X. Additionally, the company also witnessed a 380% increase in the number of job seekers on the platform. Instahyre’s SaaS product offering has also contributed to the addition of 30 million candidates and over 7000 companies ranging from enterprises to high-growth startups and unicorns.

In addition to the upgradation to the SaaS product, the company has added new technologies to its portfolio, including Instahyre Drives, which claims to handpick the best candidates for mass hiring using AI instantly. The new product technology has garnered traction from companies like Amazon, Walmart, Google and 800 of the world’s largest companies, unicorns and high-growth startups.

Sarbojit Mallick

“We are extremely happy with our 2021 results from product, revenue and operations perspective. Owing to these successes, we are very well positioned for expansive growth of the team, customers and company. The team size has increased and we are strengthening our departments with senior hires as we look to launch globally. We will be focussing on expanding in the IT services segment, where we have received overwhelming response. For geographical expansion we are looking to foray into US talent markets as many US companies and startups already use Instahyre for their Indian offices,” commented Sarbojit Mallick, Co-founder & CBO of Instahyre.

A major initiative Instahyre has undertaken for the current year is to build a unified platform for recruitment with automation with 10-12x more candidate engagement than any of the available solutions in the market. The AI-powered hiring platform uses technology to understand a candidate’s personality and employer DNA to match them. Additionally, the company processes millions of data points to understand intent and behaviour from both the supply and demand points of view.

The new products from Instahyre will help integrate all the hiring segments, from sending the first email to the offer email. The platform helps with 50-80% of all the hiring needs of its clients with intelligent inputs from Instamatch for building a high-performance talent pipeline. Additionally, it has saved 72% of the hiring costs of its clients by using technology extensively to automate manual tasks, reminders, etc., for faster closure, reducing time-to-hire and lowering the cost-per-hire.

Founded in 2016, Instahyre is an advanced hiring platform that leverages artificial intelligence to enable recruiters to hire top talent effortlessly. The AI-powered hiring platform condenses hours’ worth of manual efforts such as applying filters to search for suitable candidates, checking if they are interested etc., by providing recruiters with a curated list of candidates ready for hire. In addition, the AI-led hiring enables recruiters to spend more time perfecting candidate experience, while Instahyre does the heavy lifting of providing quality profiles.

HR Tech Startup InterviewDesk Raises Seed Funding from Sugumar Natarajan and Ex Amazon Execs

On Demand Interviewer Platform InterviewDesk, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding led by Sugumar Natarajan, Executive Director, Anil Foods and angel investors including the former Amazon leader Lakshminarayanan Venkatajalam, Former Amazon Recruiting Leader Karthick Chandran, reported People Matters, an online magazine for HR Leaders.

The HR Tech startup closed the funding couple of weeks back, said the People Matters' report, and the startup plans to use the raised funds in strengthening the engineering and business teams to build the tech that empowers the platform, the company announced.

InterviewDesk is an interview-as-a-service platform solving tech-hiring across the globe to help companies build their engineering team faster. With its platform organizations can now save up to 50% of time and cost spent on hiring, mentions the InterviewDesk website.

Founded in 2018, by former senior recruiter at Amazon, Pichumani Durairaj, InterviewDesk is built to disrupt traditional hiring methods and works on a unique concept of outsourced interviewing.

InterviewDesk has seen a growth of 400% year-on-year, in FY-2022/, said the report citing the company statement. Its clients include companies such as Ally, Byjus, Rupeek, Jupiter Money, Glossier, Coin Switch Kuber and Jubilant FoodWorks.

Headquartered in Chennai, InterviewDesk's one of the offerings includes offer pre-assessed candidates to organizations, wherein organizations can leverage on ready to be hired bunch of candidates anytime. It also offers anonymous technical mock interviews with engineers from MAANG and other top companies.

The clientele of InterviewDesk include companies such as Ally, Byjus, Rupeek, Jupiter Money, Glossier, Coin Switch Kuber and Jubilant FoodWorks.

10 Impressive HR Tech Startups That're Boosting Organizational Performance Through Their Tech-enabled Solutions

A new generation of HR tech startups is giving employers a competitive edge in the fight to attract and keep top talent. HR is by definition a people’s profession, and people are what make businesses go. Despite this, this very human, personal industry appears completely at ease with digital transformation.

The Human Resource solutions industry is undergoing constant change. Technological advancements are constantly taking place in the HR tech space. Technology-based solutions used by the HR industry are expected to lessen some of the stress on HR professionals, who historically work long hours and go unnoticed for all they do in the office. Operations will be streamlined by technology in the upcoming years, and businesses will have higher employee satisfaction as a result.

In sync with these technological changes taking place, the below is the list of ten HR Tech companies and startups that are dynamically working towards achieving efficient HR workflows using emerging technologies like AI, Machine Learning and NPU among others

Bridgentech

Bridgentech is a boutique Contract to Hire Staffing and Solutions provider. Bridgentech has been offering solutions to the IT industry, backed by capable and skilled candidates who can deliver since 2018. However, they realized that even though there are strong demand and supply forces in the industry, the “right-fit” or “trust-based-hiring” is still evolving & there’s a lot it takes to make that bond happen. So they started looking beyond Job Descriptions and Resumes.

They serve businesses with talented IT professionals through focused and differentiated recruitment processes, Skill-enhancing in-house training, inter-cultural gap bridging, incubation, and international migration support, blended into one-offering tailored to the client.

Bridgentech sources top-of-the-line IT operations engineers in the space of cloud, DevOps, and ContainerOps so that one can deliver the application across any platform with unprecedented agility, precision, and care. They find resources who can help with data consolidation, warehousing, intelligence, etc and assimilating it with scalable modern architectures and applications, thus maximizing its value.

NWORX

NWORX is a B2B SaaS platform used by professional development service providers or directly by enterprises across India, Europe, and Africa to improve the performance of leaders and professionals. NWORX offers engaging and effective leadership and professional development that is completely embedded in the flow of everyday work of a professional. The company aims to be the category leader in leadership and professional development addressing business challenges across growth, transformation and future-readiness of the workforce.

The services automated by the NWORX platform democratize professional development, managing human ROI in business terms.

Belong

Belong is the first predictive outbound hiring solution in the world. The brand's data-driven hiring solution assists growing businesses in identifying and engaging with candidates who best fit their requirements and are most likely to move. Vijay Sharma, a BITS Pilani alumnus, founded the brand in 2014, offering reduced hiring time, automated and personalized outreach, efficient applicant tracking, effective talent engagement, and integrating talent DNA to acquire and retain the best matches. 

The brand's Ml algorithms have enabled businesses to find and target high-fit talent, engage candidates with personalized engagements, and accelerate recruiting cycles at scale.

Mettl

Ketan Kapoor and Tonmoy Shingal founded Mettl, a Gurugram-based HR technology startup, in 2009 with the goal of leveraging technology for hiring practices in Indian and global enterprises. This technology company provides recruitment assessments, programming tests, psychometric tests, aptitude tests, a pre-built test library of over 200 tests, an interview app, vocational skills assessment, remote proctoring, performance analytics, and a certification platform. The company has a presence in 100 countries and serves over 1,800 clients worldwide.

iXceed Solutions

A Talent and Workforce Solutions services company, iXceed is a service provider to Fortune 500 companies and primarily focuses on these domains globally: Technology, IT consulting and Engineering Consulting.

The company uses Artificial Intelligence-based recruitment solutions to create an in-class experience for both clients and candidates. Some of their clients are- Infosys, HCL, Oracle, Mindtree, NIIT, etc. It is co-founded by Yogita Tulsian, who is also its Director.

InCruiter

Established in 2018, InCruiter is an online recruitment platform based on SAAS in the B2B space. InCruiter provides an Online Recruitment Marketplace for recruitment agencies and independent recruiters to speedup hiring process by 10x. 

The platform connects specialized recruiters with the best track records to the matching jobs. Multiple agencies working on a single job with a single point of contact makes hiring fast and efficient. This in turn enables employers for more accurately hiring with cost and time savings. InCruiter helps in finding you the best candidates in the shortest time without any hassle of phone calls, emails, invoices, and agreements from multiple vendors.

FlexC 

FlexC is an AI-driven talent marketplace for organisations to hire and manage their Hybrid Workforce. It acts as an uber for recruitment for its 150+ clients through its 200+ agency and 25K+ professional network.

FlexC offers an integrated SaaS platform to engage with agencies, hire talent (full time, contractual and remote), create milestones, pay invoices, all at one platform. The company also offers monitoring support to track the performance of the hybrid employees. Managers can track real-time productivity through an interactive dashboard and download performance reports.

Keka 

Keka is an HR automation software with the mission of solving complex HR challenges. It is essentially an HRMS and Payroll software provider. A SaaS employee experience platform, Keka combines HR, payroll, ATS and performance management in a single suite of tools. It simplifies common tasks and allows organizations to seamlessly manage human resources processes.

Unlike the traditional HR systems, Keka focused on solving complex HR problems in a simple and intuitive way. The product enables organizations to manage their HR processes from hire to retire while ensuring an awesome user experience for the employees. 

Quandle

Qandle is all-in-one cloud-based HR Solution startup focused on redesigning the HR software from the employees’ perspective. Quandle has launched various solutions to address different facets of the HR department in organizations across all sectors, including - Remote Work Toolkit, Touchless Attendance, Qanbot (HR tasks chatbot), PeoplePro (Free community for HR professionals) etc.

Last year in April, Quandle launched an AI-powered HR chatbot called ‘Qanbot’ that helps automate daily HR tasks of employees and automate and address the day-to-day general queries of employees on behalf of the HR department. Later in October, Quandle launched the beta version of EasyBoard, an AI enabled onboarding chatbot, to make new hire onboarding a seamless experience for the candidates and corporations, both. 

Moveworks

Moveworks is the first employee experience platform that uses conversational AI to solve issues and prevent problems at work. It automatically resolves requests, communicates changes, and shows the team what to fix next. The platform automatically resolves employees’ HR requests, including benefits inquiries, PTO applications, payroll questions, and more.

Moveworks' conversational AI is fluent in nine languages. The company claims that its AI platform gives employees support in seconds, just by asking for what they need, and enables leaders to prevent problems in advance.  Among its clientele, Moveworks counts companies like Hearst, DocuSign, and Broadcom among others.

Calling and Qualifying Platform for Working Pros Callify.ai Raises $560K from Venture Catalysts, Malpani Ventures, Calega Ventures and Others

With the capital infusion, Callify aims to strengthen its first-mover’s advantage in the HR tech domain before replicating its core engine to address use-cases across multiple industries

Chetan Indap, CEO, Sunny Sharma; CTO, Deepanti Kavi, COO.

Mumbai, 14th December, 2020: Venture Catalysts, India’s first and largest integrated incubator participates in the $560K seed round in Callify, a calling & qualifying platform for working professionals. The funding round is led by Malpani Ventures (India), along with participation from eminent investors like Calega Ventures (UAE), The Chennai Angel Network, and Marvari Angel Network. 

Founded in 2016, Callify is an industry-agnostic, voice-powered technology for working professionals that enables them to automate their daily outbound phone interactions through cutting-edge technology such as speech AI and virtual assistant. The platform empowers users to screen leads without calling, increase closure rates, reduce cost-per-hire, and conduct performance data analysis, thereby eliminating over 70% of wasted or unproductive time. This advantage makes it an essential tool in any job that entails making outbound interactions throughout the day like HRs, sales, operations, marketing, etc.

Speaking on the investment, Chetan Indap, CEO– Callify, said, “We are excited that some of India’s leading investment institutions are confident in our value proposition and the team’s capabilities to execute the planned growth. This funding only validates that we are on the right path and motivates us to continue working toward sour long-term goal."

Dr.ApoorvRanjan Sharma, Co-founder & President – Venture Catalysts, said, “Callify has single-handedly enhanced user productivity by automating repetitive and transactional daily tasks, freeing uptime to devote to their core strength of engaging, sourcing, and closing. The strong background and expertise of the Callify team have turned a promising idea into an innovative, unique, and marketable product that is now simplifying the outbound call-centric workload across industries. We are thrilled to support this disruptive, high-potential start-up and are confident that the team can achieve exponential growth in the future."

Callify currently works with prominent global brands like Infosys, Accenture, NTT Data, HDFC Bank, Orange Telecom, ICICI Prudential, HCL, Kelly Services, and Allegis, etc. It has also been rated as one of ‘Top 15 Best Products in the World’ in its domain in 2019 and 2020 by New York-based Talent Tech Labs, the ‘Most Innovative Product’ in 2017 by the IIM Calcutta Alumni Association, and the ‘Most Innovative HRTech Company’ in 2018 by NHRD Bangalore.

About Venture Catalysts

Venture Catalysts is India’s first integrated incubator. It invests $250K – $1.5 Million in early stage start-ups that have potential to create enduring value for over a long period of time. Venture Catalysts brings a lethal combination of Capital, Mentoring and Business Network to help investee companies to succeed. Their innovation provides value to start-ups through its extensive angel network, funding, community, services and co-working facility.

Indo-Finnish HR-Tech Venture SCIKEY Raises Funding from Finland Govt

HR Tech firm SCIKEY, an Indo-Finnish venture of SRKay Consulting Group, has secured funding from Business Finland, the funding arm of the Finnish Government. SCIKEY is one of the very few global tech startups selected by the Finnish Government for investment by them.

With its AI & MindMatch powered Talent Commerce platform, SCIKEY is a new age talent solutions venture, which provides a comprehensive Talent Commerce Platform where human psychology and cutting-edge Technology meet to maximize the potential of talented minds most effectively.

SCIKEY offers Managed Crowd-Sourcing, Intuitive Experience Management Interface, AI & MindMatch powered hiring automation, etc.

"Research & Development on the futuristic technologies such as Augmented Learning, Emotion Analysis, Simulation & Prediction of Human Behaviour and to create a lot more IPs for SCIKEY, remains the key focus of this investment round. With Finland as its global R&D base, SCIKEY is naturally poised to leverage the world-renowned 'Finnish Innovation' ecosystem to deliver the best of the outcomes and experience for its customers as well as users globally. This funding also adds a punch to SCIKEY's product line that includes SCIKEY Talent Commerce Platform as well as the upcoming Speed Consulting Platform and Talent Engagement Platform," says Mr. Alok Kumar, Managing Partner, SRKay Consulting Group, the PE arm of the billion dollar conglomerate SRK Group.

"Adding high-end research and collaboration with different Finnish universities gives tremendous leverage to SCIKEY as we have combined the best of both Finnish research ecosystem and India's deep expertise in building globally scalable software systems. Being an Indo-Finnish venture, the current investment by the Finnish Government allows us to take our research capabilities to the next level. Kiitos-Dhanyawad," says Mr. Shriram Viswanathan, Co-Founder, SCIKEY.

"We are super excited with this investment from the Finland Government as it's a symbol of their high confidence in SCIKEY's capability to deliver world-class solutions. As a part of our long-term commitment and contribution to the Finnish Innovation ecosystem, Akshay Sharma, one of the Co-Founder's at SCIKEY, will be moving his base to Finland later this year. With its R&D base in Finland, a technology hub in India and Malaysia as its gateway for expansion into the booming Asia-Pacific and emerging South-East Asian markets; SCIKEY is thrilled to step-up its game to the next level," says Karunjit Kumar Dhir, Co-Founder, SCIKEY.

SCIKEY has been created to deliver extraordinary outcomes for various talent needs including employee experience management, employee learning & development and employee productivity enhancement through path-breaking MindMatch algorithm.

SCIKEY's MindMatch algorithm is focused on disrupting and transforming the way hiring is done globally, using AI & Psychology, adding a completely new dimension of predicting if a certain human behaviour will fit a given job profile.

SCIKEY's Global ecosystem owns several IPs in the field of Behaviour Analysis & Prediction. It comprises R&D centres in Europe & India, global R&D Partners, collaborations with global universities and a team of expert researchers & data scientists.

Kapil Dev, Others Invests in Online Hiring Platform WizCounsel

Wizcounsel, an online market network that helps people hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts has raised Rs. 1 crore in an angel round led by Kapil Dev, Former Indian Cricket Team Captain, Sunil Kumar Gupta, Founder & Chairman, SARC Associates, and Manas Fuloria, Founder & CEO, Nagarro.

WizCounsel helps People & Small Businesses hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts according to your budget and needs. The platform functions as a marketplace and a SAAS to help people hire the right Legal & Accounting experts - Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Business Experts and get work done seamlessly using inbuilt work management framework.

The raised funds will be used for marketing, sales and to strengthen current operations.
Talking about starting WizCounsel, Ranu Gupta, Founder & CEO, said “People still look for professional services the way they used to 15 years back and Professionals still develop a business the same way. This is a perfect “that’s how it has always been opportunity”. It is a big industry that is outdated and badly in need of improvement for speed, convenience, affordability, and quality”.



WizCounsel is an online market network that helps People & Small Businesses hire & manage freelance Legal, Tax & Accounting experts according to your budget and needs. The platform functions as a marketplace and a SAAS to help people hire the right Legal & Accounting experts - Lawyers, Chartered Accountants, and Business Experts and get work done seamlessly using inbuilt work management framework.

“It is going to be all about the Internet. People are already using it to order food, to book doctors, etc. and I am sure they will start looking for services from CAs and Lawyers or even Accountants online. Many directories exist, but the thing is there must be a platform to give them much more confidence about how they deal with experts for their work.” Said Kapil Dev, the legendary Cricketer.

Commenting on Investment, Manas Fuloria, Founder & CEO, Nagarro said “Individuals or small companies seeking legal, tax or accounting help are automatically on the back foot because of “information asymmetry”. They typically do not know what exact services to ask for, how much to pay, how to monitor timelines and effort, and how to evaluate the quality of decisions. WizCounsel aims to even this asymmetry by giving the client more control over the search, service and payment journey.”

WizCounsel was launched in March this year and is currently running in Beta. Till now, the platform has more than 100 verified professionals across different cities out of 600 total applications and has generated a total transaction value of approximately Rs. 3 Lacs.

Speaking on his Investment, Sunil Kumar Gupta, Founder & Chairman, SARC Associates said WizCounsel empowers young Accountants & lawyers who have always found it extremely tough to generate business for themselves.  A lot of Young professionals can work more passionately at a lesser price with the same quality. Like engineering & design teams, Businesses can form distributed finance & legal teams to cut on cost, improve quality and transparency.

The platform offers a variety of services right from simple Income Tax Filing to outsourcing whole Legal & Accounting work for a  business.  

Talking more about the Startup, Ranu said “The concept of sharing economy has impacted every industry the hardest way possible but professional services still remain on the backseat. It is going to be one unified internet connected global workforce and an innovative approach is required to figure out how the Legal & Tax Industry serves the next generation. The major aspect missing is the reassurance & confidence for clients with respect to their work. If we can track the delivery of our food, why shouldn’t we track the delivery of a shareholding agreement or monthly accounting MIS? This is where WizCounsel makes a huge difference. The vision is to create an open, affordable and a reassuring Tax, Legal & Compliance Eco-system for all.

AI-powered HR Tech Platform Hyperhire gets $200K from Korea's Springcamp to Launch Referral Platform JOBKET in India

Delhi-based Hyperhire, a B2B End to End HR Solutions Platform that leverages Artificial Intelligence to identify most appropriate candidates for the relevant profiles, has received 200k USD worth investments as seed funding to launch JOBKET in India. The investment has been done by Seoul based early-stage venture capital firm Springcamp and supported by the Korean Government.

JOBKET is a unique job platform which brings out the concept of referrals in the HR process. The concept of referrals is much trusted for years to source quality profiles for companies offering the most suited opportunities for candidates. The company is also set to announce their series A funding in the coming months.

The newly launched platform will allow users to access various handpicked Job descriptions from renowned companies, basis which they can either self-apply or recommend their colleagues/friends who may have great talent but are unaware of a great opportunity. These ‘referrals’ are designed to be dealt with complete sanctity of offering rewards to those whose recommendations make it to the hiring. Depending on the stature of the Job Profile, users on the site for their referrals can enjoy rewards worth Rs 20,000 – Rs 1,00,000 if their referred candidate makes it to the company.

The launch of JOBKET further builds up the profile of Hyperhire which is a B2B End to End HR Solutions Platform that uses Artificial Intelligence to screen these quality profiles supported by Human Intelligence which is a pool of experienced professionals from leading companies that Hyperhire has put together to screen these profiles further and interview the further shortlisted pool ensuring a point evaluation system and final bunch of selected candidates is what gets passed on to the company, making the process more efficient and hassle free with the quickest turnaround for quality candidates.

Speaking about the development, Mr Daniel Mingi Kim, CEO, Hyperhire said “Machine learning is a boom and a blessing, but its true magic can be seen when combined with Human learning and intelligence. Together the evolution beats all odds and makes success the only output. We at Hyperhire realize that and are here to source the best from the available pool of talent and scout for new ones.”

In the words of the Indian Co-founders of Hyperhire, Amrita Gujral and Nakul Sethi, “JOBKET is a well thought through product with excellence of tech from Korea and the Indian HR insights ensuring the product puts itself to best use guaranteeing efficiency. There are new roles, new skill sets, some enhanced, some newly acquired, the variety is interesting enough for HR managers across companies to step on new understanding of these profiles to ensure the best sifted candidates are hired. We step in as enablers for the HR managers, making the hiring decisions simplified. Ever learning, ever growing!”

JOBKET is a complete solution which in its initial phase will reach out to potential candidates in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The platform will gradually spread its wings pan India in its next expansion model sometime during end of this year.
About Hyperhire

In an era of machine learning, the value of human knowledge is lesser understood, but it is this knowledge that nourishes and further betters machine learning capacities and advancements. We become the mixologist that seamlessly blends the human skills with the emerging technology, to create a beautiful blend of workplace experiences fit for the working world of today and tomorrow.

Source - Business Wire India

HR Tech Startup Skillenza Raises $1 Mn from CBA Capital, Blume Ventures and Tracxn

Bangalore-based VH Education Services Private Limited, which own and operates HR tech startup, Skillenza, has raised $ 1 million in a pre-Series A investment round, led by CBA Capital's Education Catalyst Fund (ECF) and contributions from existing investors Blume Ventures and Tracxn Labs Other new investors LetsVenture, CIO Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, Hyderabad Angels also contributed to the round, reported Times of India.

The funds raised would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza, said in a media statement, "We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly."

Skillenza was founded in 2016 by Subhendu. Essentially, it is a an online platform for professionals that hosts challenges, coding assessments and hackathons to help companies hire engineers and for professionals, it allows to showcase their skills and build an experience graph. The data generated from each challenge is recorded on the platform and is used to create a very personalized experience graph for each user.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level," said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart.” The current round would be utilised to create new modules for assessment of software engineers and expand into tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India, a statement from the company said.

"We are working on credentialing students coming out of engineering colleges and creating a global repository of final year undergraduates. These verified and ranked profiles will help companies to hire talent quickly," said Subhendu Panigrahi, CEO, Skillenza.

"With the infusion of new capital, we foresee that the team will execute ideas that will aid companies to hire the best talent at scale in India to start with and eventually at a global level,” said Ashish Fafadia, partner, Blume Ventures.

Recommended By Colombia Vishal Bharat, MD, CBA Capital, said, “What attracted us to Skillenza is its offering that combines the creative process with 21st century skills. It enables participants to explore their skills in the areas that are close to their heart."

It may also be recalled that in March, Bengaluru-based ePoise Systems, a HR Tech startup that offers a cloud based SaaS solution, got acquired by global SaaS-based suites giant Zoho, for an undisclosed amount.

Prior to that, in last November, Bangalore-based Hush, an employee-focused HR tech firm founded by two former Yahoo employees, has raised ₹ 4.5 crores in funding.

In March 2018, Gurgaon based HR Technology startup Benepik had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a group of investors.

Zoho Acquires SaaS-based HR Tech Startup ePoise

Zoho, a global SaaS-based suites giant, has acquired Bengaluru-based ePoise Systems, a HR Tech startup that offers a cloud based SaaS solution, for an undisclosed amount.

Zoho's 40 plus business applications in areas of CRM, HR,
Finance, Office productivity and Customer Service are used by 45
million users globally. They are available separately and under a single
user license as Zoho One.

Founded in 2013, by alumni of London Business School - Sachin Agrawal and Bishan Singh, ePoise automates multiple screening steps for each role, including a set of assessments leading to a video interview, thus bringing significant efficiency to the hiring process for high volume recruiters, says a press release from Zoho.

Founders of ePoise (L-R) -
Bishan Singh & Sachin Agrawal

Backed by Orios Venture Partners, an early-stage venture fund, ePoise eVAL is an asynchronous video interviewing product from ePoise Systems. ePoise has raised a total of $500,000 in funding over 2 rounds.

"The combination of
Zoho's global footprint and depth of product portfolio and ePoise
product capability and talent will add value to our customers. We are
open to such technlogy-focused acquisitions. We look for whether the
acquisition plays well into our existing product portfolio, and more
importantly, if there is a cultural fit at a team level," said Sridhar
Vembu, CEO, Zoho

"We are excited about being part of Zoho. It gives us an opportunity to make an impact at scale." said Sachin Agrawal, CEO of ePoise.

To recall, just few days back Zoho has revealed about a stealth startup backed by its co-founder Sridhar Vembu. Called Signalchip Innovations , the
semiconductor manufacturing startup has built India’s first indigenous "Made in India" semiconductor chips that could be used in 4G/LTE and 5G NR Modem applications.

HR Tech Startup 'Hush' Raises ₹4.5 Cr from Accel and Shamik Sharma

Bangalore-based Hush, an employee-focused HR tech firm founded by two former Yahoo employees, has raised ₹ 4.5 crores (~ US$ 641,000) in a fresh round of funding on the back of an unexpected growth in user acceptance of their platform. Emerging as the go-to workplace app for employees from over 300 companies, Hush has also gained a higher number of employees within each company ‘cohorts’. Existing investors, Accel, Shamik Sharma (Business Head at Curefit), and an angel investor participated in the round.

Additionally, the company has added Nikhil Raj, Co-Founder of Paysa.com, to their advisory board.

The new round of funds will be utilised to expand the Hush team, grow the platform’s user base, and most importantly, launch new features on the app.

Founded in September 2017, by Ashutosh Dabral and Umesh Joshi [L-R in above picture], Hush is an employee-focused HR tech firm that provides a voice to employees and helps them move to the next level in their career. The platform also allows verified employees to rate their CEOs and CXOs. Employees of startups such as Flipkart, Ola and Practo and larger firms like Accenture, Adobe, IBM, TCS, and Infosys use Hush to get answers to their workplace and career related queries.

Before founding Hush, both of its co-founders Dabral and Joshi, had earlier worked together at Yahoo for 2.5 years and later launched their first venture together in 2016 with expertise in product management and building cutting-edge technology for consumer tech products. The duo have expertise in product management and building cutting-edge technology for consumer tech products.

The fresh raise will strengthen the brand’s growth narrative and help them reach out to a wider audience through the introduction of cutting-edge technology. Ranging from career advice to various internal discussions, the platform has seen a wide range of use cases over the course of time. With the inclusion of new-age tech, Hush looks to create more features for employees to have access to.

At present, a user spends an average of 10 minutes per day on the app. Moving forward, Hush predicts the platform will onboard an additional 1000 companies within a year. The company has also observed an uptick in the usage of their platform’s newly-launched modules ‘Salary Data’ and ‘Career Advice.’

“One of our key responsibilities at Hush is to deliver authentic data to employees about various organisations so as to help them take better career decisions. The app is also helping employees voice their opinions anonymously about issues that they are facing in corporates, which provides valuable insights to employers and helps them take important business decisions,” Ashutosh Dabral, Co-Founder of Hush commented.

Dabral added, “We are extremely thrilled to have received support from Accel as it adds a lot of credibility to our existing business model. Excited with the increased demand from our consumers, our fresh raise is focused on expanding our technology to include a wider range of audiences with more use cases. The expanded capital base will also help us build better features, expand the team, and develop the platform’s user base.”

Hush began as a workplace discussion app for employees in September 2017. Now, it is on the path to become a platform that can be a companion throughout an employee’s career and help them move to the next level. In October 2018, they launched their new website https://hush.company/ that aims to be an authentic source of information about a company, including details such as salary levels, data culture descriptions.

Hush entered the market to tackle the growing need for employees to express their real opinions, discuss pressing concerns, and pose difficult questions on topics that are important to them on a common platform. As a lot of discussions on the platform were about salary levels and career growth, Hush launched the new modules on their website to better address user needs. The Hush platform now has communities from 300+ companies and reliable salary data for 700+ companies sourced from employees, HR professionals, and recruitment consultants. The company is also building a large scale machine learning model to predict salary levels and help people evaluate what salary they will be able to get based on their skill levels. It also provides career advice to employees via a network of experts.

Over the years, leading venture capitalists have invested over INR 1000 crore in the promising HR-tech startups, which have gained considerable momentum with the active role of investors in the space.

In March this year, Gurgaon based HR Technology startup Benepik had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from a group of investors.

In November last year, Mumbai-based HR tech startup Shortlist raised $1 million in seed funding from US-based venture capital firm University Ventures, ImpactAssets, Bodley Group, Kenya-based seed fund Zephyr Acorn, Samir Shah of Sattva Capital and several other investors from both India and the US.

People Matters Partners with the Govt's Startup India Program for Its TechHR Startup Program

Gurgaon headquartered People Matters has on-boarded Startup India as its knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR startup program. The TechHR startup program is a part of its flagship People Matters TechHR conference, to be held from 1st August to 3rd August this year in Delhi.

People Matters has onboarded Startup India as its knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR startup program. The TechHR startup program is a part of its flagship People Matters TechHR conference, to be held from 1st August to 3rd August this year in Delhi.

The People Matters TechHR Startup Program has been bringing together early-stage startups in the HR technology space to interact with investors and buyers while showcasing their products to the decision-makers in the HR domain. The 5th edition of People Matters TechHR which is being hosted at The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon will be a gathering of 3000+ HR Heads, CHROs, Business Leaders, investors and mentors.

Government’s Startup India program has partnered as knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR Startup program, thus, the program will be registered at the Startup India Virtual Hub, thus providing a further boost to HR Tech startups registering for the program.

In a statement to People Matters, a spokesperson on behalf of Startup India said, “We are excited to be the knowledge partner of People Matters TechHR Startup Program. Startup India encourages and promotes initiatives that help budding entrepreneurs with adequate capital and provides opportunities of connecting with the right mentors. The People Matters TechHR Startup program aligns with our objective of building a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country.”

The Startup India Hub is one of a kind online platform for all stakeholders for startup ecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other. Launched in June 2017 as part of the Startup India, Standup India initiative, the portal hosts startups, investors, funds, mentors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, government bodies and more. The Hub attempts to solve the problem of information asymmetry and lack of access to knowledge, tools, & experts, especially in the nascent ecosystems across Tier II and III towns.

Till date, the Startup India hub has recognized over around 10,029 startups till date and has helped fund over 124 startups.

Ester Martinez, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of People Matters stated, “Startups are the source of innovation, energy and bring new competitive dynamics to the fore. They ultimately drive a better and more developed ecosystem and products for the customers. As leaders in the community of people, technology and work, People Matters TechHR bring together the largest community of HR Tech Start-ups in the region. Over 50 startups from India and ASEAN will be represented in TechHR18, representation of startups at TechHR has been doubling year on year. This year the program has the blessings of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry initiative, Startup India, and all startups registered as part of this program will have the opportunity to apply to People Matters TechHR Program.”

In the TechHR Startup Program, the startups not only get a chance to participate and showcase at the Startup Zone for three days during the conference but also get a chance to their products to top investors and mentors. They also get a chance for a One2One exclusive interaction with investors and an exclusive Masterclasses from India’s Top VCs and startup entrepreneurs.

This year’s TechHR Startup Program includes mentors and investors such as John Sumser, Principal Analyst, HRExaminer; Sairee Chahal, Founder & CEO Sheroes; Tarun Davda, Managing Director Matrix Partners; Harmeen Mehta, Global CIO and Head of Digital Airtel; Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, Eight Innovate; Sanjeev Somasundaram, APAC Head - Programs Staffing Google among others.

Some of the startups that have confirmed participation for this year program are Workruit, Compport, SalaryFits, Hyreo, PredInt, and ZoomLearn among others. The deadline for application to the program is 15th July.

Source - Email feed from Business Wire India

People Matters Partners with the Govt's Startup India Program for Its TechHR Startup Program

Gurgaon headquartered People Matters has on-boarded Startup India as its knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR startup program. The TechHR startup program is a part of its flagship People Matters TechHR conference, to be held from 1st August to 3rd August this year in Delhi.

People Matters has onboarded Startup India as its knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR startup program. The TechHR startup program is a part of its flagship People Matters TechHR conference, to be held from 1st August to 3rd August this year in Delhi.

The People Matters TechHR Startup Program has been bringing together early-stage startups in the HR technology space to interact with investors and buyers while showcasing their products to the decision-makers in the HR domain. The 5th edition of People Matters TechHR which is being hosted at The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon will be a gathering of 3000+ HR Heads, CHROs, Business Leaders, investors and mentors.

Government’s Startup India program has partnered as knowledge partner for the People Matters TechHR Startup program, thus, the program will be registered at the Startup India Virtual Hub, thus providing a further boost to HR Tech startups registering for the program.

In a statement to People Matters, a spokesperson on behalf of Startup India said, “We are excited to be the knowledge partner of People Matters TechHR Startup Program. Startup India encourages and promotes initiatives that help budding entrepreneurs with adequate capital and provides opportunities of connecting with the right mentors. The People Matters TechHR Startup program aligns with our objective of building a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country.”

The Startup India Hub is one of a kind online platform for all stakeholders for startup ecosystem in India to discover, connect and engage with each other. Launched in June 2017 as part of the Startup India, Standup India initiative, the portal hosts startups, investors, funds, mentors, academia, incubators, accelerators, corporates, government bodies and more. The Hub attempts to solve the problem of information asymmetry and lack of access to knowledge, tools, & experts, especially in the nascent ecosystems across Tier II and III towns.

Till date, the Startup India hub has recognized over around 10,029 startups till date and has helped fund over 124 startups.

Ester Martinez, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of People Matters stated, “Startups are the source of innovation, energy and bring new competitive dynamics to the fore. They ultimately drive a better and more developed ecosystem and products for the customers. As leaders in the community of people, technology and work, People Matters TechHR bring together the largest community of HR Tech Start-ups in the region. Over 50 startups from India and ASEAN will be represented in TechHR18, representation of startups at TechHR has been doubling year on year. This year the program has the blessings of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry initiative, Startup India, and all startups registered as part of this program will have the opportunity to apply to People Matters TechHR Program.”

In the TechHR Startup Program, the startups not only get a chance to participate and showcase at the Startup Zone for three days during the conference but also get a chance to their products to top investors and mentors. They also get a chance for a One2One exclusive interaction with investors and an exclusive Masterclasses from India’s Top VCs and startup entrepreneurs.

This year’s TechHR Startup Program includes mentors and investors such as John Sumser, Principal Analyst, HRExaminer; Sairee Chahal, Founder & CEO Sheroes; Tarun Davda, Managing Director Matrix Partners; Harmeen Mehta, Global CIO and Head of Digital Airtel; Vikram Chachra, Founding Partner, Eight Innovate; Sanjeev Somasundaram, APAC Head - Programs Staffing Google among others.

Some of the startups that have confirmed participation for this year program are Workruit, Compport, SalaryFits, Hyreo, PredInt, and ZoomLearn among others. The deadline for application to the program is 15th July.

Source - Email feed from Business Wire India

Gurgaon-based HR-Tech Startup Benepik Raises Seed Funding

Gurgaon based HR Technology start-up Benepik that provides mobile based solution for Employee Communication, Engagement, Rewards and Recognition, has raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding.

Benepik has raised the seed funding from a group of investors including Vishal Bali. Vishal is a serial investor and has invested in several startups including Bangalore based Health Tech start-up Feet Apart, in 2016 [Read Here]. Delhi-based HR Leader Yogesh Misra and a Delhi based HNI also participated in the round.

Benepik was founded in 2015 as an Employee Benefits platform. Saurabh Jain, Founder & CEO is an alumnus of Delhi School of Economics and has worked in consulting and technology practices at Capgemini, Deloitte and UNDP across India & Europe. In the last two years, Benepik has evolved into an integrated platform for Employee Communication, Engagement, Rewards and Recognition for the mid and large size organizations. It has over 15 clients across Financial Services, Consumer Appliances, Automotive and Manufacturing among others.

Benepik claims to have the most integrated solution in the Employee Engagement space. The platform is particularly useful for communication and engagement of non-desk workers (such as sales, service, operations and front end employees). It offers many other functionalities such as peer to peer recognition, pulse surveys, health & wellness, gamification among others. As part of its Employee Benefits portfolio, it has partnered with 1200+ merchants to offer preferred pricing to its corporate customers.

Saurabh Jain, Founder & CEO of Benepik said, the funds will be used to strengthen the platform further, adding more functionalities around employee engagement and learning & development. It will also focus on developing capabilities in HR Analytics besides focusing on geographical expansion.

According to PeopleMatters.in, the HR technology marketplace is a $400 billion market globally. While it is a budding market in India, reports suggest that India is expected to grow at the rate of about 25% in the next 5 years, and that by 2021, Indian firms can save at least $600 million annually with HR tech.

Between 2012 and 2016, leading venture capitalists have invested over INR 1000 crore in the promising HR startup segment.

Last November, HR tech startup Shortlist raised seed funding of $1 million from US-based venture capital firm University Ventures, ImpactAssets, Bodley Group, Kenya-based seed fund Zephyr Acorn, Samir Shah of Sattva Capital and several other investors from both India and the US. Prior to this -- in April 2017, HR-based bot & AI technology startup Engazify raised undisclosed amount from Silicon Valley based HNI angel investor, Vaibhav Domkundwar.

Moreover, there have been three acquisitions in this space in 2016 -- Quikr acquired Bangalore-based job board Hiree, Indore’s Wag Mobile, a mobile first learning and training platform was acquired by Edcast, and Chennai-based KPIsoft, which provides a performance management solution was acquired by Kresna Investments.

Prior to this, an another HR tech startup EdGE Networks was in the news when it made into The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2016 Winner List.

HR tech startup Shortlist Raises $1 Mn In Seed Funding

One year old HR tech startup Shortlist has raised a seed investment of $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore), according to a report from VCC Circle. The round saw the participation of US-based venture capital firm University Ventures, Impact investment firm ImpactAssets, US-based Bodley Group, Kenya-based seed fund Zephyr Acorn, Samir Shah of Sattva Capital and several other investors from both, India and the US.

Having its offices in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Nairobi, Shortlist lends a helping hand to companies in India and East Africa hire for early and mid-career roles based on skills and potential. The firm has over 80 high profile clients. Some popular ones includes Xynteo, Ather Energy, M-KOPA and MicroEnsure.

What makes Shortlist stand out from the rest, is its state-of-the art technology, which helps in creating a single application flow to engage candidates across a firm’s sourcing channels, including third-­party recruiters, job boards and referral programmes.

According to the statement released by the firm, it will utilise the fresh funds for further enhancing its data-driven talent screening product which automates the process of vetting applicants’ profiles using online competency-based assessments. Done manually, vetting profiles can become an extremely time consuming process, but Shortlist's new product makes the process as efficient as it has ever been.

Commenting on the investment raised, Paul Breloff, co-founder and CEO of Shortlist said, “Both job seekers and employers deserve a better way to find each other and gauge fit. We are thrilled to have a group of investors who share our desire to fix the broken talent marketplace, and believe the mix of expertise across India, East Africa and the US will add strategic value as we build on our early traction."