Article: Top investments in Indian HR Tech space in 2020

HR Technology

Top investments in Indian HR Tech space in 2020

Here’s a quick look at the top news making fundraisings in the Indian HR Tech and Work Tech space this year.
Top investments in Indian HR Tech space in 2020

As we close a dystopian year in our chapters, the year somehow proved game-changing for the HR Tech space. As work from home became the norm, digitization and collaboration became the need of the hour with more and more organizations scrambling to get more HR Tech tools in place. The growing number of investments in the space is a validation of this.

As per Deloitte Consulting LLP, the HR technology marketplace is a $400 Bn market globally. Investor interest in this sector is steadily growing globally and in India as well. 2020 has been a radical year for HR Tech and as organizations turn more towards digitization, investments in the sector are expected to grow.

Here’s a quick look at the top investments in the Indian HR Tech and Work Tech space this year.

Eightfold AI raises $125 Mn in Series D funding

Eightfold AI raised a $125 Mn Series D funding round. A significant amount of this investment will be committed to hiring exceptional talent in India. Additionally, the funds will be used to expand and scale Eightfold's leading AI-powered Talent Intelligence Platform, a single solution for managing the entire talent lifecycle. The funding round is led by General Catalyst and also includes investors from previous rounds, including Capital One Ventures, Foundation Capital, IVP, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Total funding raised to date by Eightfold AI is more than $180 Mn. 

Betterplace raises $10m in Series B funding from Singapore based Jungle Ventures

Betterplace which provides digital solutions for blue-collar workforce management throughout the entire value chain has raised $10 million in a Series B round led by Jungle Ventures and a total of $16 million since its inception. Existing investors, Unitus Ventures, 3One4 Capital, and Venture Highway also participated in the round. Launched in 2015, Betterplace addresses the $30 Bn India opportunity of blue-collar workforce management, impacting over 450 Mn people. Through its data-driven, tech platform, Betterplace uniquely fulfills the requirements of both enterprises and the workforce in this fragmented and underserved ecosystem.

Leena AI raises $8Mn in series A funding

Leena AI, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered employee experience platform, today announced an $8 million Series A financing led by Greycroft to expand its go-to-market programs and accelerate product development. The round also included a personal investment from Adam Miller (Founder of Cornerstone OnDemand), Alan Patricof (Chairman of Greycroft), and Jim Moffatt (ex-Chairman/CEO of Delloite Consulting). In conjunction with the funding, Mark Terbeek, partner at Greycroft, will be joining Leena AI's board. The funding will allow Leena AI to continue its momentum by helping the world’s top enterprises to modernize their legacy internal helpdesk systems to better their employee experience. 

Xiaomi invests $5.63 Mn (Rs 42 Cr) in blue-collar recruitment platform WorkIndia

Blue-collar recruitment platform WorkIndia raised Rs 42 Cr from Xiaomi. Previous investors of WorkIndia who have done multiple investment rounds in the company include marquee VC investors such as Beenext Pte ltd, an active global investor with investments in multiple countries globally;  Taniya, Chairman, Asuka Investments, a top hedge fund in Japan and now Xiaomi, a leading global technology conglomerate. The Bengaluru based startup aims to provide meaningful livelihoods to the 23.7 crore blue-collar individuals of India using technology as an equalizer.

inFeedo raises US$3.2 Mn in an oversubscribed round

SaaS-based people analytics startup inFeedo, which operates an employee experience chatbot to identify disengaged employees who are likely to leave, raised US$3.2 million in an oversubscribed funding round led by former Khosla Ventures partner Benjamin Ling, the founder of Bling Capital. Other participating investors include Maninder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer at OYO, Munish Varma, Managing Director for EMEA at SoftBank, and Girish Mathrubootham, founder of Freshworks. This was inFeedo's second successful funding round in 2020—the company had earlier this year raised US$700,000 from startup accelerator Y Combinator and other successful entrepreneurs.

Hiring-focused HR tech firm Able Jobs raises $1.8 Mn in seed funding

Bangalore-based hiring platform Able Jobs raised $1.8 Mn in seed funding in August. The round was led by SAIF Partners, with participation from Y Combinator, Neeraj Arora, Titan Capital, and Firstcheque.  Started in 2019, Able Jobs strives to help companies hire entry-level talent in the fields of sales, support, and marketing, while also offering skill development and online training courses for these young job seekers. The HR Tech startup aims to utilize the funding for the acceleration of its product growth and expanding its team. Additionally, it also aims to build state-of-the-art training products for organizations to hire talent reliably, and parallelly expanding into industries like FMCG, BFSI, etc. 

HR Tech startup Zimyo raises $1.5 Mn in seed funding led by BEENEXT

HR Tech startup Zimyo has raised 1.5 Mn in its seed funding round led by BEENEXT. Yatra Angel Network and Angel List also participated in the funding round. Angel Investors Abhishant Pant, Founder at The FinTech Meetup, and Navin Surya, Chairman at FinTech Convergence Council also participated in the funding round. Zimyo was also a participant in the People Matters TechHR Startup Program in 2018.

Health insurance startup Plum raises $5.07 Mn funding

Plum, a Bengaluru based group health insurance startup, providing modern health benefits to corporates, has raised INR 7 Crores in seed funding in July. The round was led by Incubate Fund with participation from Gemba Capital and Tracxn Labs along with angel investors including Abhijit Gupta and Ram Sahasranam of Praxify Health, Sudheendra Chilappagari of Belong.co, Nitin Jayakrishnan of Pando and Alvin Tse of Xiaomi. The startup further went on to raise US$4.1 million, led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and Tanglin Venture Partners.

AI-based talent discovery platform TurboHire raises $ 1 Mn in seed funding

Hyderabad-based Augmented Intelligence-driven recruitment platform TurboHire has raised $I Mn in seed funding with a series of institutional and individual investors investing in the startup. The investment round is led by Pentathlon Ventures. The other participants include Kia Ora Ventures as well as individual investors Monish Darda, Sanjay Balram, and Prabir Jha among others. The seed capital of $1 Mn will be utilized for taking TurboHire to global markets, improving the value proposition by building an ecosystem, and deepening the intelligence with automated interviews.

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Topics: HR Technology, Funding & Investment, #HRTech, #WorkTech

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