Indonesia: HR tech startup Ekrut gets seed funding from East Ventures

By Juliet Shwe Gaung

January 17, 2017

Human resource technology company, Ekrut on Tuesday said it has raised an undisclosed seed investment from East Ventures, an Indonesia-based early stage VC that invests in companies across Asia and US.

The company is expected to use the undisclosed funds for growing the business. “Ekrut has managed strong revenue growth at 100 percent month-on-month and is aimed to disrupt the headhunting industry in the region,” it said in a statement.

Ekrut was founded in September 2016 by Steven Suliawan, an entrepreneur in residence at East Ventures, who ran a loyalty-program startup before founding Ekrut.

Ekrut allows employers to get high caliber talent during their hiring process. With the help of technology, Ekrut’s platform is expected to speed up the whole process of headhunting.

“Traditionally, in headhunting, the whole process until an offer is sent takes about eight weeks. Using the right technology and marketplace model, offer letter delivery can be reduced to about four weeks,” said Suliawan, CEO and co-founder of Ekrut.

With a team of 17, Ekrut services over 30 technology based companies including Tokopedia, Go-Jek and Orami. Within five months, they have curated more than 1000 talents in their database and direct network.

Ekrut now makes up to over 150 companies that East Ventures provides early stage seed capital mainly to startups that are involved in e-commerce, social games, Software as a service (SaaS) and mobile services.

The other Indonesia’s cloud based SaaS start-up that recently got funding is Talenta that snapped pre-Series A investment of about $1 million in August 2016 from East Ventures and Skystar Capital lead round.

Also, in late 2016, another HR management and payroll platform, Gadjian from Indonesia raised funding Golden Gate Ventures together with Maloekoe Ventures.

While Indonesia’s digital boom has offered plenty of opportunities for investors, the investors or employers still face challenge in getting the right talent.

“There are tons of engineers in Indonesia, but the real good ones are scarce. This leads to the high competition on the skilled engineers. This is why we curate our talent pool in Ekrut, to ease the pain of our client in finding skilled candidates,” said Ardo Gozal, COO and co-founder of Ekrut.

Also Read:

Indonesia based HR startup Talenta gets funding from Fenox, East Ventures

Indonesia: HR SaaS company Rekruta raises seed round from East Ventures

Indonesia: Gadjian gets funding from Golden Gate, Maloekoe Ventures

 

Singapore Reporter/s

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Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

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  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
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Singapore Reporter/s

In Singapore, we are looking to double our reporting team by this year-end to comprehensively cover the fast-moving world of funded startups and VC, PE & M&A deals. We want reporters who can tell our readers what is really happening in these sectors and why it matters to markets, companies and consumers. The ability to write precisely and urgently is crucial for these roles. Ideal candidates must have to ability to work in a collaborative, dynamic, and fast-changing environment. We want our new hires to be digitally savvy and ready to experiment with new forms of storytelling. Most importantly, we are looking for hard-hitting reporters who work well in a team. Collaboration and collegiality are a must.

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).

Following vacancies can be applied for (only in Singapore).   

  • A reporter to track companies/startups that have raised private capital, and have the potential to become unicorns. SEA currently has over 40 companies with a valuation of over $100 million and under $1 billion.
  • A reporter who can get behind the scenes and reveal how funding rounds are put together, or why they’ve failed to materialise. She/he in this role will largely focus on long-format stories. 
  • A journalist to track special situations funds, distressed debt and private credit (from the PE angle) across Asia.
APPLY NOW