Phone maker Xiaomi bets $5.9 mn on jobs search platform WorkIndia

Blue collar recruitment platform WorkIndia has raised $5.92 million in a Series A funding round from Beijing headquartered electronic devices maker Xiaomi.

Eloquent Info Solutions, the Bengaluru-based startup that owns WorkIndia, will use the capital to hire fresh talent to strengthen its technology team. 

“With 125 million user events captured every month and dynamic algorithms already in place, WorkIndia is truly ready for artificial intelligence capability,” a statement said.

The latest round takes the total capital raised by the company to nearly $12 million. It has raised $5.52 million over several funding rounds in the past, as per data from VCCEdge. Venture capital firm Beenext, Tokyo headquartered hedge fund Asuka Investments and several angel investors have invested in the company earlier.

Founded in 2015 by Kunal Patil, Jatin Jakharia, Nilesh Dungarwal and Soumil Rao, WorkIndia is a jobs marketplace for blue collar and vocational workers such as office assistants, delivery persons, telecallers, data entry operators, beauticians and housekeeping staff. 

With a presence in 763 cities, the company claims to have registered 1.5 crore job seekers on its platform. It uses a geo-positioning algorithm-based product, which allows predicting aspects of job hiring such as salaries. WorkIndia estimates the blue-collar job market in India to have 23.7 crore people.

Patil, a Stern School of Business alumnus, has 10 years of experience in investment banking and has worked for Merrill Lynch. Jakharia is an IIT Bombay alumnus who has worked for companies such as Credit Suisse and UBS. Dungarwal, who also worked at Credit Suisse, co-founded rickshaw sharing app Metershare and edtech platform GetProfessor. Rao is an engineering graduate from the Sardar Patel Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Although WorkIndia is a niche product for blue collar job seekers and technicians, job portals with a wider scope, such as Naukri, Shine and Indeed, also operate in the space. In January last year, online classifieds portal OLX acquired blue-collar job marketplace Aasaanjobs for an undisclosed sum.

“Investment in young talent in the company is WorkIndia's focus. There is an extraordinary level of focus on working with amazing team members," co-founders Patil and Dungarwal said. 

“The cutting-edge technology developed by WorkIndia, utilising geo-positioning and dynamic algorithms, is one of the best in class that we have seen. The company has created a massive dent in the Indian blue collar (job) segment in a short span of time,” Manu Jain, MD of Xiaomi India, said.

In India, Xiaomi has invested in digital lending platform ZestMoney and social media platform Samosa Labs. In December last year, the company launched Mi Credit, its digital lending solution, in addition to its online payment app Mi Pay. 

Venture capital company Shunwei Capital was founded by Xiaomi founders Tuck Lei Koh and Lei Jun in 2011. It invests in startups from sectors such as technology, telecom, media and internet finance, and its India investments include LoanTap, ShareChat, SimSim, Rapido and Kuku FM.