Lumis Partners, The HR Fund, Rajul Garg and Quintillion Media Invest in SHEROES

SHEROES – The career platform for women has raised a Series A funding led by Lumis Partners along with participation from The HR Fund and angel investor Rajul Garg. Existing investor, Raghav Bahl led Quintillion Media also participated in the round. The transaction is part of a larger commitment, out of which 12 crores come in immediately. Dexter Capital was the exclusive financial advisor and Vertices Partners was the legal advisors to SHEROES for the Transaction.

SHEROES had earlier raised an angel round from Raghav Bahl led Quintillion Media, 500 Startups and a group of individuals including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rajan Anandan, Binny Bansal, Mekin Maheshwari, Girish Mathrubhootham, Indus Khaitan and Krishna Mehra.

Talking about the latest round of funding Sairee Chahal Founder of SHEROES, says, “SHEROES is uniquely placed to solve a hard problem and has invested in building the entire ecosystem supporting women and their aspirations. With a large mission, a fast growing organization and an innovator’s mindset, getting the right kind of investment support is crucial. With this capital raise, we will further strengthen our investment in technology, resources and growing the SHEROES footprint.”

Highlighting the reasons behind choosing SHEROES, Sandeep Sinha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lumis Partners said, “With SHEROES the size of the opportunity as well as the impact it can generate is really exciting. The Lumis advantage in helping build processes and scale can have a multiplier effect. The SHEROES team has demonstrated great results in very short period of time and we are looking forward to accelerating the same.”

Raghav Bahl, Founder Quintillion Media added, “SHEROES has a committed team and has shown great traction. It is an innovative business model and high impact makes it a compelling startup. We are proud and happy to help in building SHEROES into a formidable organization.”

Utkarsh Joshi, CEO of The HR Fund said, “Gender diversity is a pressing issue for India Inc and SHEROES is helping creating the right kind of linkages between women workforce and organizations. SHEROES is The HR Fund’s 5th investment and is a perfect fit for our portfolio. We are very excited to be a playing a significant role in shaping up this reality.”

Rajul Garg shared, "I feel SHEROES is led by a fantastic team and has deep understanding and empathy for its target market. I am excited to be a part of the journey ahead.”

SHEROES is the largest careers community of women, with members from over 20,000 locations. Over 12,000 companies actively use the platform. SHEROES runs a career support helpline via phone and app. It also has its communities spread in all major cities across India including major metros, and upcoming cities like Jaipur, Indore and Pune.

With a low women in workforce ratio and a over a 300 million women ready to connect to opportunities and financial independence, SHEROES has built a unique organization with women’s careers and aspirations at the center.

Sandeep Sinha and Pankaj Bansal will join the board of SHEROES parent – Applied Life Pvt Ltd.

KNOLSKAPE Raises Series A Funding from Inventus Capital & The HR Fund

[caption id="attachment_105286" align="alignnone" width="707"] Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE[/caption]

KNOLSKAPE,​ the Gamification and Simulation software company in talent transformation space, has raised series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners​; a US ­India venture firm managed by successful entrepreneurs & The HR Fund, India’s first human resources (HR) focused private investment company. The investment will be used for international expansion, product innovation and building out global partnerships.

With their extensive experience of scaling up businesses, Inventus Capital will help KNOLSKAPE scale–up their operations globally; The HR Fund at its end will bring in domain expertise and its reach into the global HR community.

Using experiential learning products, KNOLSKAPE helps organizations attract, grow and retain talent. Global Fortune 500 companies, Top­10 B-­schools and leading HR consulting / training companies use KNOLSKAPE’s Gamification and Simulation products and solutions for on­boarding, training, assessments and talent engagement.

According to Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE:​ “Both Inventus Capital & The HR FUND with their expertise will help KNOLSKAPE in shaping the future of learning in India. He further added, “Today with the increase in millennial population in corporates, there is huge challenge to engage the workforce. Moreover with the millennial generation set to occupy half of the global workforce (by 2020), HR has realized an immediate need for engaging youngsters. Thus, 'Microlearning' or bite sized lessons in the form of games are a new trend catching up in India.”

According to Vijay Kalangi, Co­founder & CTO – KNOLSKAPE: “Along with global expansion, we will focus on product innovation especially in the areas of HR analytics and mobile platforms. The end goal is to build a formidable team that will revolutionize the way current workforce learns. We want to unlock human potential to help drive organisational performance.”

According to Kulwant Bardh, CEO, APAC – KNOLSKAPE:​"We at KNOLSKAPE have always been passionate about creating cutting edge and futuristic products which will help organizations transform the way their people learn. With the kind of growth we are seeing in South East Asia and China, the funding will enable us to implement our mission at scale. Expanding our presence in new markets is the next big leap that's in store. Exciting times ahead for all us as we reshape the future of learning."

According to Utkarsh Joshi, Principal, The HR Fund, “According to Gartner, the global market for Gamification solutions will be roughly at $5.5 billion by end­2018. Already, global corporations have used it in areas such as customer engagement, loyalty programmes, sales, and are extending it to their internal operations and employees. In India, adoption is often hindered by conventionally ingrained attitudes towards use of such tools at the workplace. But of late, Gamification is being adopted by various corporates to engage the younger workforce.”

Samir Kumar, Managing Director – Inventus commented​, “ Talent plays a key role in the success of companies, and KNOLSKAPE, with its technology powered, gamified learning solutions, helps its clients upskill their talent pool. We're happy to be partnering with a passionate entrepreneur like Rajiv in his journey, and together, hope to build an organization that creates a global impact."

KNOLSKAPE Raises Series A Funding from Inventus Capital & The HR Fund

[caption id="attachment_105286" align="alignnone" width="707"] Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE[/caption]

KNOLSKAPE,​ the Gamification and Simulation software company in talent transformation space, has raised series A funding from Inventus Capital Partners​; a US ­India venture firm managed by successful entrepreneurs & The HR Fund, India’s first human resources (HR) focused private investment company. The investment will be used for international expansion, product innovation and building out global partnerships.

With their extensive experience of scaling up businesses, Inventus Capital will help KNOLSKAPE scale–up their operations globally; The HR Fund at its end will bring in domain expertise and its reach into the global HR community.

Using experiential learning products, KNOLSKAPE helps organizations attract, grow and retain talent. Global Fortune 500 companies, Top­10 B-­schools and leading HR consulting / training companies use KNOLSKAPE’s Gamification and Simulation products and solutions for on­boarding, training, assessments and talent engagement.

According to Rajiv Jayaraman, Founder & CEO – KNOLSKAPE:​ “Both Inventus Capital & The HR FUND with their expertise will help KNOLSKAPE in shaping the future of learning in India. He further added, “Today with the increase in millennial population in corporates, there is huge challenge to engage the workforce. Moreover with the millennial generation set to occupy half of the global workforce (by 2020), HR has realized an immediate need for engaging youngsters. Thus, 'Microlearning' or bite sized lessons in the form of games are a new trend catching up in India.”

According to Vijay Kalangi, Co­founder & CTO – KNOLSKAPE: “Along with global expansion, we will focus on product innovation especially in the areas of HR analytics and mobile platforms. The end goal is to build a formidable team that will revolutionize the way current workforce learns. We want to unlock human potential to help drive organisational performance.”

According to Kulwant Bardh, CEO, APAC – KNOLSKAPE:​"We at KNOLSKAPE have always been passionate about creating cutting edge and futuristic products which will help organizations transform the way their people learn. With the kind of growth we are seeing in South East Asia and China, the funding will enable us to implement our mission at scale. Expanding our presence in new markets is the next big leap that's in store. Exciting times ahead for all us as we reshape the future of learning."

According to Utkarsh Joshi, Principal, The HR Fund, “According to Gartner, the global market for Gamification solutions will be roughly at $5.5 billion by end­2018. Already, global corporations have used it in areas such as customer engagement, loyalty programmes, sales, and are extending it to their internal operations and employees. In India, adoption is often hindered by conventionally ingrained attitudes towards use of such tools at the workplace. But of late, Gamification is being adopted by various corporates to engage the younger workforce.”

Samir Kumar, Managing Director – Inventus commented​, “ Talent plays a key role in the success of companies, and KNOLSKAPE, with its technology powered, gamified learning solutions, helps its clients upskill their talent pool. We're happy to be partnering with a passionate entrepreneur like Rajiv in his journey, and together, hope to build an organization that creates a global impact."