WorkIndia raises $500k from founders of Citrus Pay, Venture Works, and others

Visual from WorkIndia website

By Pramugdha Mamgain

October 6, 2015

WorkIndia, a geo-positioning based product company in the blue/grey collar segment, has raised $500,000 in pre-Series A funding led by Citrus Pay founder Satyen Kothari, Venture Works India founder Keshav Sanghi, and Discovery Capital founder Riddhesh Gandhi.

A few senior executives at multinational banks too participated in the round.

The funds will be used by WorkIndia, owned by Mumbai-based Eloquent Info Solutions Pvt Ltd, to enhance its tech product offerings and increase customer penetration, the company said in a statement.

Nilesh Dungarwal, tech co-lead and founder of two tech start-ups before WorkIndia says, “Today, the blue/grey collar segment is increasingly using the smartphone for many of their needs. It’s only a matter of time that they will use the smartphone for their recruiting needs too, provided they are given a highly simple and customised interface to use”.

Founded by a team of IIT and IIM alumni with past work experience in MNC banks, WorkIndia help job seekers in the blue/grey collar segment find jobs based on their skills. Its founding members include Kunal Patil, Ajay Kumar, Nilesh Dungarwal, Moiz Arsiwala, Aashish Mittal and Jatin Jakharia.

“The blue/grey collar segment behaves extremely differently from the white collar when it comes to recruiting. Our team spent 3-4 months at bus stops, paan shops, etc. to gain deeper customer insights and understand this segment’s behaviour,” says Kunal Patil and Ajay Kumar, co-founders at WorkIndia.

The non-white collar workforce in India is Rs 23 crores strong amounting to a latent industry need of over $4 billion annually. Earlier, people in this segment did not have a digital footprint. However, the advent of the mobile phone has provided a once in a lifetime chance to reach out to this segment digitally, they added.

According to the company, current blue/grey collar platforms in India are force-fitting white collar solutions to the blue/grey collar segment. For instance, this segment is highly averse to text-based or a listing interface but most blue/grey collar mobile apps still insist in providing this interface.

“The key is to provide the user with a ultra-simple, almost gamified experience,” say co-founders Aashish Mittal and Jatin Jakharia.

Aashish is ex-Morgan Stanley and Google Summer of Code alumnus and Jatin Jakharia was a Credit Suisse banker and start-up founder post his B. Tech. from IIT Bombay.

Also Read: Online listings site Quikr launches QuikrJobs for entry-level job seekers

Recruitment start-ups on a tech drive to make a dent in jobs market

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.
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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