News: Sheroes raises Rs 12 crore in Series-A funding from 4 investors

Entrepreneurship

Sheroes raises Rs 12 crore in Series-A funding from 4 investors

The Rs 12-crore fund is part of a larger commitment from the 3 investors Lumis Partners, The HR Fund and angel investor Rajul Garg
Sheroes raises Rs 12 crore in Series-A funding from 4 investors

Sheroes.in, a jobs and career community for women has raised Rs 12 crore investment from the Lumis Partners, operating Private Equity Fund which take an active role in growing services businesses,  along with The HR Fund, India’s first human resources focused private investment company and angel investor Rajul Garg. Founded by Sairee Chahal as Fleximoms in 2011, the company rebranded itself to Sheroes.in in 2014. And this is The HR Fund’s 5th investment. The HR Fund had earlier in April invested in Knolskape. 

Existing investor, Raghav Bahl led Quintillion Media also participated in the round. The transaction is part of a larger commitment, out of which 12 crore come in immediately. The investment will be primarily used for strengthening the technology and also on expansion.

Dexter Capital was the exclusive financial advisor and Vertices Partners was the legal advisors to Sheroes for the transaction.  

Sairee Chahal, Founder of Sheroes said, “Sheroes is uniquely placed to solve a hard problem and has invested in building the entire ecosystem supporting women and their aspirations. With a large mission, a fast growing organization and an innovator’s mindset, getting the right kind of investment support is crucial. With this capital raise, we will further strengthen our investment in technology, resources and growing the Sheroes footprint.”    

“With Sheroes the size of the opportunity as well as the impact it can generate is really exciting. The Lumis advantage in helping build processes and scale can have a multiplier effect. The Sheroes team has demonstrated great results in very short period of time and we are looking forward to accelerating the same,” said Sandeep Sinha, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Lumis Partners. Sandeep Sinha and Pankaj Bansal will join the board of Sheroes parent – Applied Life Pvt Ltd. 

Angel investor Rajul Garg said, "I feel Sheroes is led by a fantastic team and has deep understanding and empathy for its target market. I am excited to be a part of the journey ahead.”

Sheroes seeks to bridge the gap and make it easier for stay- at- home moms or those seeking a work- life balance to get back into the career groove or to find flexible job opportunities.  

Sheroes had raised its angel round of funding worth around Rs 5 crore in August 2015. The funding was led by Raghav Bahl-owned Quintillion Media and 500 Startups. Other investors included Freshdesk's Girish Mathrubootham, entrepreneurs Indus Khaitan of Bitzer Mobile (which was acquired by Oracle) and Krishna Mehra of Capillary Technologies.

Talking about the investment, Utkarsh Joshi, CEO of The HR Fund said, “Gender diversity is a pressing issue for India Inc and Sheroes is helping creating the right kind of linkages between women workforce and organizations. Sheroes is The HR Fund’s 5th investment and is a perfect fit for our portfolio. We are very excited to be a playing a significant role in shaping up this reality.”

Raghav Bahl, Founder Quintillion Media says, “Sheroes has a committed team and has shown great traction. It is an innovative business model and high impact makes it a compelling startup. We are proud and happy to help in building Sheroes into a formidable organization.”

Currently, more than 6,000 companies use the Sheroes platform and over half a million women are Sheroes members across 5,000 locations. More than one million women availed of career resources, mentorship and opportunities at the startup in the past year.

The HR Fund portfolio also includes PeopleStrong, PiQube and People Matters Media Pvt Ltd and Knolskape.

Disclosure: The HR Fund has also invested in People Matters Media Pvt Ltd.

Read full story

Topics: Entrepreneurship, Diversity, #HRAuditStudy

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?