Voice AI hiring platform JobsUPI secures $250K pre-seed round

Voice AI-powered employment platform JobsUPI has raised $250,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by IIMA Ventures, with participation from angel investors, as the startup looks to expand its multilingual hiring infrastructure across India.

The funding announcement was shared on LinkedIn. Co-founded in 2025 by Shrey Bansal and Shubham Periwal, JobsUPI describes itself as a multilingual and multimodal employment platform designed to improve access to jobs across India through Voice AI-enabled systems.

The startup said it aims to create a “Jobs Unified People Interface” that connects job seekers and employers in real time through hyperlocal and technology-driven matching infrastructure.

Startup targets underserved workforce segments

JobsUPI is positioning itself around employment accessibility in districts, smaller towns and underserved labour markets where digital hiring penetration remains limited.

According to the company’s founding narrative, India has nearly 60 crore workers across approximately 4.5 crore MSMEs, NGOs and formal sector businesses, yet less than 20 per cent of workers remain connected to digital job platforms.

The company said the issue is not a lack of skill availability but inadequate access to hiring systems and job discovery infrastructure.

Key details from the funding announcement include:

• JobsUPI raised $250,000 in a pre-seed funding round
• Funding led by IIMA Ventures
• Participation from angel investors
• Founded in 2025 by Shrey Bansal and Shubham Periwal
• Platform focuses on multilingual and multimodal hiring
• Current operations concentrated in North India
• Expansion planned into additional regions

The company currently competes with platforms such as Apna, Smartstaff and AamDhanE in the employment technology and workforce access segment.

Funding to support product and market expansion

According to the announcement, the startup plans to use the capital to strengthen product capabilities, scale distribution and expand into new geographies.

The company outlined three primary areas for deployment of funds:

• Strengthening product capabilities
• Scaling distribution
• Expanding geographically

JobsUPI said its broader long-term objective is to unlock employment access at scale while improving hiring efficiency for businesses and MSMEs.

The startup’s stated vision includes:

• Unlocking 100 million jobs
• Helping 10 million MSMEs and enterprises hire more efficiently
• Improving job access for blue-collar and skilled workers across Bharat

Voice AI and multilingual access shape platform strategy

The company’s operating model reflects increasing investor interest in employment technology platforms targeting non-English-speaking and semi-urban workforce segments.

JobsUPI is building around multilingual and voice-enabled interactions, areas seen as important for expanding digital participation among workers outside traditional urban hiring ecosystems.

The startup said its vision was inspired by the scale and accessibility of India’s UPI payments infrastructure.

In its company narrative, JobsUPI said: “Why can't we do the same for jobs creating a unified interface for real-time job matching across the nation?”

The founders also positioned the platform as infrastructure-led rather than a conventional job portal.

“We did not set out to build another job portal. We set out to build national employment infrastructure open, inclusive, and built for public good,” the company stated.

Hiring infrastructure gains investor attention

India’s employment technology market has continued attracting startup investment as companies look to address fragmented hiring systems, workforce mobility and digital inclusion challenges.

Platforms focused on blue-collar hiring, MSME recruitment and vernacular technology adoption have gained traction amid rising smartphone penetration and increasing formalisation across segments of the labour market.

JobsUPI’s early-stage funding comes as startups across India increasingly experiment with AI-led recruitment systems, voice interfaces and regional language technologies to improve workforce participation and hiring efficiency.

The company said it is expanding operations beyond North India as it seeks to broaden access to employment infrastructure across additional regions.