Portal for blue-collar jobs Babajob raises $10M from Australia's SEEK

Bangalore-based Babajob Services Pvt Ltd, which runs the job portal for blue-collar workers, has raised $10 million from Australian company SEEK Ltd, it said on Tuesday. SEEK has picked a minority stake in the firm.

The company will use the funding to grow its team and brand and to develop its mobile apps. It will also improve its telephony services such as 'Missed Calls for Jobs' and 'RapidHire'.

"We are excited to find a strong partner in SEEK who shares our vision of using technology to connect everyone on the planet to better jobs, especially those in emerging markets. We are honored to be their first investment in India and look forward to bringing access to better jobs to every Indian and to helping every employer reliably hire aspiring workers," said Sean Blagsvedt, CEO and founder of Babajob.com.

Babajob was set up in 2007 by Blagsvedt, an American national who moved to India in 2004 to work on language technologies and solutions at Microsoft Research's Bengaluru centre. He left his job after three years to set up Babajob.com and Babalife.com. While Babajob is the recruitment portal, Babalife.com is a social network where members can interact with the bottom-of-the-pyramid section of the society.

Currently, Babajob has over 2.5 million listed job openings and three million job seekers.

It connects employers with those seeking job opportunities in areas like product delivery staff, office helpers, drivers, cooks, maids, security guards, etc.

In 2012, Babajob raised Rs 3.5 crore ($0.6 million) from social venture investment firm GrayGhost Ventures, besides a few individual investors including Silicon Valley veteran Vinod Khosla in Series A round. Prior to that in 2010, the company raised its seed funding.

"Babajob is an exciting opportunity for us. We have been impressed with the capabilities of the management team, and we look forward to assisting them achieve their goal of helping connect more aspiring Indians to jobs," said Ronnie Fin, SEEK International Corporate Development Director.

SEEK and its affiliate companies claim to be the largest global online employment marketplace, available to nearly 2.6 billion people across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, China, Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh and Africa. The company says it receives over 365 million visits to sites every month and has over three million job opportunities available at any given time.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)