HR services firm PeopleStrong buys referral recruitment platform GrownOut

Gurgaon-headquartered HR services firm PeopleStrong said on Monday that it will acquire online referral hiring platform GrownOut for an undisclosed amount.

The acquisition will see Delhi-headquartered GrownOut become a part of the PeopleStrong Alt product suite and its team will join the core product team of PeopleStrong.

Founded by Sumit Gupta and Harsimran Walia in 2014, GrownOut enabled organisations to leverage their employees’ professional network and sought to make recruitment more efficient and cost-effective.

A business-to-business startup operating on the software as a service (SaaS) model, it was backed by venture capital firm Matrix Partners and early-stage investor Outbox Ventures.

“Recruitment tech is one of our key focus areas and GrownOut’s technology will help us take it to the next level through artificial intelligence-based matchmaking and social profiling,” said Vishal Saha, founding member and chief technology officer of PeopleStrong said.

PeopleStrong had announced two new products last week – its artificial intelligence and machine learning-powered Alt Recruit and its HR app store on its platform called Alt One.

Set up in 2005, the HR services firm says it has around 1,000 employees and more than 170 customers across industries. Prominent clients include Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Life Insurance and News Corp VCCircle, among others.

This is PeopleStrong’s fourth acquisition. Earlier buys included Lumis Partners-backed Integrated Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd in 2013, Big Bytes Solutions Pvt. Ltd in October 2014 and Summit HR’s frontline business in 2011.

The company has 1,000 employees and claims to have an order book of Rs 500 crore and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 60% over the course of a decade.

Earlier this month, Bhavin Turakhia-promoted fintech startup Zeta, which offers digital employee solutions, had picked up a minority stake in in PeopleStrong for an undisclosed amount.

Last April, private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management Pvt. Ltd had picked up a majority stake in PeopleStrong. Multiples and mortgage lender HDFC Ltd cumulatively hold about three-fourths of the company.