Info Edge buys semantic search software startup MakeSense for $1.5M

Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs a string of consumer internet properties including Naukri.com, has acquired MakeSense Technologies Pvt Ltd for around Rs 8 crore ($1.5 million). MakeSense has developed proprietary software for semantic search which will augment search capabilities for both recruiters and job seekers, principally on Info Edge's flagship site Naukri.

Mumbai-based MakeSense was co-founded in 2009 by IIT Bombay alumni Vivek Arya, Anand Ramachandran and Sumit Kundu.

Arya, the CEO of the firm who also sports the designation of hacker & software architect, previously worked with Deutsche Bank in the financial derivatives domain before moving to a VC firm and then working with logistics company Allcargo. Ramachandran, who heads operations, worked with energy firm Schlumberger after setting up another venture in education & training domain. Kundu was earlier working with HOC.

MakeSense had earlier raised angel funding from Ravi Jakhar, founder and managing director of ICE X Electronics, and director at Advet Advisory.

The company's semantic search technology, built on a library of over 1 lakh concepts spanning skills & expertise, designations, companies and industries, seeks to deliver better results than the keyword-based resume or job search.

This is done through natural language processing (NLP) where MakeSense's NLP pipeline processes resumes or job descriptions to extract concepts, irrespective of the multiple ways they are written in English.

It also does concept ranking and IVR-based candidate screening besides using a data analytics platform for career analytics including salary insights, company rankings, university rankings, geographical distributions, etc.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)