Background verification startup BetterPlace raises fresh capital

BetterPlace Safety Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore-based startup that uses data analytics to offer background verification services, has received an undisclosed amount of investment from Venture Highway through VH Capital, according to a press statement.

Venture Highway was founded by Samir Sood, former head of corporate development for South Asia and Australia at Google, and advised by Neeraj Arora, business head at WhatsApp. It has previously backed companies such as Plabro, Tracxn, Meesho, Deal4Loans, Moglix and Gingercrush.

BetterPlace was started in January 2015 by Uday Singh and Pravin Agarwala. It provides personal, employment, educational, criminal and training verification services. Agarwala previously headed SAP's cloud computing division as vice president. Singh is also the group CEO of SIS Group Enterprise.

The startup claims to have created more than 2 lakh profiles since its launch and aims to hit a million profiles in 2017. It offers safety as a service to companies and individuals through its technology-based solutions.

It leverages Aadhaar information, tracks digital footprint of an individual and crowdsources social media data, besides conducting traditional background checks.

Before making a hiring decision, employers can search by name, mobile number or a valid ID to view the candidate's profile. The platform also allows users to create base profiles that are verified by BetterPlace.

The company had raised $970,000 (Rs 6.6 crore) in seed funding from India-focused early-stage investor Unitus Seed Fund in February this year.

In November last year, BetterPlace raised an undisclosed amount in funding from former Google India executive Lalitesh Katragadda. As part of the transaction, Katragadda joined BetterPlace's board.