HR tech startup Shortlist and software developer firm Crio secure capital

Human resources firm Shortlist Professionals has raised $2 million (Rs 14.2 crore) in a fresh funding round led by US-based impact investment firm Blue Haven Initiative, a company statement said. Compass Venture Capital, existing investor Zephyr Acorn, and other undisclosed investors also put in money.

Launched in 2016 by Paul Breloff, Shortlist helps companies in India and East Africa hire talent for early and mid-career roles based on demonstrated potential and skill. The startup’s technology creates a single application flow to engage candidates across a firm’s sourcing channels, including job boards, referral programmes and third­party recruiters.

Shortlist then screens these candidates using chat-based interviews, online competency assessments and other proprietary tools that predict how candidates will perform in a particular role. Employers receive access to interview-ready candidates, streamlining the time-consuming hiring process.

The company claims to work with over 300 clients and over 4 lakhs jobseekers.

In September 2017, the company had raised $1 million (around Rs 6.4 crore) in seed investment from US-based venture capital firm University Ventures and a clutch of other investors. Impact investment firm ImpactAssets, US-based Bodley Group, Kenya-based seed fund Zephyr Acorn, Samir Shah of Sattva Capital and other investors from India and the US also participated in the round.

The company has previously raised capital from AHL Venture Partners, Blue Haven Initiative, the Shell Centenary Scholarship Fund and the Shell Foundation.

Crio raises capital from Binny Bansal, others

Crio.Do, an applied learning platform for software developers, has raised $1 million (Rs 7.1 crore) from a group of former Flipkart executives including the e-commerce behemoth’s founder Binny Bansal, a company statement said.

Amod Malviya, Vaibhav Gupta and Sujeet Kumar, co-founders of business-to-business e-commerce platform Udaan; Mekin Maheshwari, founder of Udhyam.org, a non-profit company which focuses on grassroots-level entrepreneurship; and Ravi Garikipati, former chief technology officer of Flipkart participated in this round. Malviya, Gupta, Kumar and Maheshwari have worked with Flipkart in the past.

The startup will use the capital to scale its product and team, it said.

Crio provides personalised and adaptive learning solutions for developers. The startup claims to offer work-like learning modules based on real-life problems and its solutions are optimised for learning.

The company was founded in 2018 by former Flipkart executive Rathinamurthy R and former Googler Sridher Jeyachandran.

“Increasing need for qualified tech talent is a global problem and huge market opportunity. Crio has an exceptional team and their approach towards solving this problem is unique, backed with practical insights and experience,” Bansal said.