Spinny, Khatabook and mPokket plan to ramp up hiring in 2022

Standing at the tail end of 2021, some companies are planning to enter the new year with increased manpower.  

Spinny, a full-stack used car retailing platform will increase its employee headcount to over 5,000 by the end of 2022, up from the present figure of 4,000, the company said in a statement on Thursday. 

The company said that recruiting peaked in October 2021, with 18% of new hires being women. The company’s headcount grew to over 4000 employees in 2021. 

“Fulfilling our promise of a quality car for every Indian household and customer delight in the buying or selling experience are our people. Through their commitment and zeal for getting things Spinny right, people today believe in a Spinny Assured® car and trust us. Every new member of Squad Spinny- and more driven individuals - will join their ranks in 2022, and will know their role is to continue to build this hard-earned trust,” said Niraj Singh, Founder and CEO of Spinny.   

On 21 December, Spinny announced its first buyback of employee stock options (Esops) worth $12 million (around Rs 90 crore) for both its former and present team members. 

Earlier this month, the company announced the closure of a $283 million (Rs 1849.45 crore) series E funding round from new and existing investors.    

Gurugram-headquartered Spinny, operated by Valuedrive Technologies Pvt Ltd, was founded in 2015 by Niraj Singh, Mohit Gupta and Ramanshu Mahaur. It has 36 car hubs that operate across 15 cities - Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Indore and Coimbatore, according to their website.  

Khatabook  

Fintech startup Khatabook will ramp up hiring across engineering, design, product, and data teams. Currently, employee headcount stands at 320, after 3x growth in 2021, the company said in a statement on Thursday. 

Founded in January 2019, Khatabook has over 10 million monthly active users and provides a range of software solutions to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for their business needs. 

“Khatabook was born from the idea of uplifting India's MSME ecosystem. While product innovation is at the core of what we do every day, we believe transformation should begin from 'within’, said Ravish Naresh, CEO and Co-founder, Khatabook. 

“Khatabook is a customer-first organization, where employees build the base for that philosophy. While hiring right is important, we are on a mission to set new standards in employee experience in India's startup ecosystem," he added.  

Engineering is going to be the main hiring focus for Khatabook in 2022. Since Series C funding in August 2021, Khatabook has been ramping up its products and service offerings, including building financial services, it said.   

In 2021, the company implemented several employee policies, including an unlimited leave policy and mental wellness breaks for staff. Employees, ex-employees, and early investors who contributed to the company's growth were also recognised and rewarded with a $10 million Esop repurchase, the statement said.  

The two-year-old startup provides kiranas with digital tools that help MSMEs boost efficiency and reclaim dues. Pagarkhata, a portal for managing employees and salaries, has also been launched.   

Khatabook paid $10 million for SaaS accounting platform Biz Analyst earlier this year, allowing it to provide premium value-added services such as on-demand access to sales, purchasing, and inventory management. It has more than 10 million monthly active users on its platform, which is currently available in 13 languages, the statement said.    

In another development, mPokket, the instant loan app announced hiring plans for the financial year 2022 in a statement on Thursday. mPokket will hire over 1500 employees in 2022, across its various verticals. As on date, the total workforce comprises over 1400 employees. 

Over 80 per cent of the new recruits would be in operations, and the remaining in corporate functions.