Excl: Referral recruitment portal MyRefers.com raises Series A funding from Bedrock Venture; plans to break-even in one year

Delhi-based referral recruitment portal MyRefers.com has raised an undisclosed amount in its Series A round of funding from Noida-based Bedrock Venture Management Private Ltd, a source close to the development informed Techcircle.in.

MyRefers' founder and CEO Lalit Bhagia confirmed the fundraising, but he declined to comment on the investor or the amount raised. The funds will be used in building the product. "We plan to build a Big Data intelligence engine to power referrals," he said.

Founded in April 2013, while the portal is currently doing about 1,200 referrals on a monthly basis, information on how many people actually end up getting a job is not available. It has done referrals in multiple cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune and Indore.

MyRefers works on a subscription model, wherein it gets paid by the companies it has on board. Currently, the portal claims to have 35 firms that include HCL, Mahindra & Mahindra, Yepme, Makemytrip, Dentsu, Iprospect c2, Reliance Digital and STAR TV. It is offering 667 vacancies from these firms as of now. The startup's core consumer product and its extended SaaS-based offerings are currently in beta.

Before starting MyRefers, Bhagia used to be VP and head-digital for Star TV. Prior to that, he ran a startup called Service4u and also worked with NIIT and Indiatimes.com. The startup recently appointed Avnish Anand as a co-founder and chief product officer. His last stint was with Times Business Solutions Ltd. Previously, Anand was also part of the core founding team that built online jewellery store CaratLane.com.

Once a job is converted, the startup offers money ranging from Rs 1,500 to Rs 5,000 to members who refer people. This is the reward money that the hiring company provides. MyRefers also earns 25 per cent as mark up on the referral money. According to Bhagia, the company is looking to break even in a year.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)