Employment Portal StaffOnContract Raises Angel Funding

One-year-old employment portal StaffOnContract.com, run by Joule Consulting Pvt Ltd, has raised angel funding of Rs 50 lakh from Indiagames founder and CEO Vishal Gondal. Post-funding, Gondal will join the board of advisors.

Started in January 2011, the portal brings together employers and staffing companies and help hire individuals on a contract-basis. "We are a pure play marketplace; we term the employers as buyers, the staffing companies as sellers and bring them on one podium," explained Chetan Indap, founder & CEO of StaffOnContract.com, while talking to Techcircle.in.

According to Indap, this angel round had been raised as Gondal was keen to be on the company's board. The firm would be raising another $1.5 million soon in a series A round of funding.

The company has around 5,000 staffing companies registered as of now, as well as 2,000 individuals and 100 employers. Also, there is a good traction from tier II cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda and Coimbatore.

Essentially a B2B portal, StaffOnContract.com also offers registration facility for individuals looking for work on contract basis. But currently, the promoters are finding the B2B model more lucrative as well as scalable. "We are a small company with limited funds. Plus, the B2B marketplace model is highly unorganised in India and thus places a very large opportunity for us," added Indap. With the angel funding, the company would look to make its technology platform more robust and sophisticated, and would focus more on marketing, he added.

The funding had been received from Vishal Gondal, who had founded Indiagames.com in January 1999. It became a gaming subsidiary of the UTV Group after UTV acquired a majority stake in the company. Gondal also figures in VCCircle's list of India's Most Active Angel Investors. He also runs Sweat & Blood Venture Group, a seed/early-stage venture capital fund which he founded in January 2007. Last October, Gondal sold his remaining stake in Indiagames although he remains the CEO of the firm.