Global consulting firm ANSR has announced the acquisition of two year old AI driven recruitment startup FastNext, in an all-stock deal.. The financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed. ANSR supports multinational organizations set up their global capability centres (GCCs), and has so far helped set up over 60 GCCs, and enabled recruiting more than 70,000 people since inception. The new acquisition will help ANSR automate the recruitment process and help drive efficiencies. 

Bengaluru based HR tech startup FastNext, was incubated by CoffeeBeans, a boutique product and technology services firm. The startup leverages AI driven tools for recruitment and finds talent, based not only on technical skills but also cultural fitment and career objective fitment.

Commenting on the recent acquisition, ANSR’s Founder & CEO Lalit Ahuja said, “Building global capability and engineering centres for technology innovation is a priority for multiple Fortune 1000 companies who are on this journey. As a global market leader in this industry, we are excited to integrate FastNext’s portfolio of AI-based tools and solutions into our portfolio so that data is at the core of everything that our customers do to win in the digital age.”

For about nine months now, ANSR has been working with FastNext and has seen a 40% increase in efficiency in its recruitment process. The first of the capabilities the company aims to build with FastNext is in AI driven talent acquisition and management that will augment existing consulting and technology capabilities. This will help ANSR’s clients in areas including talent acquisition and management. 

The consulting firm also stated that its talent platform, Talent500, will play a pivotal role in this partnership. The platform has experienced significant growth in recent times, with a focus on disrupting the existing recruiting processes in the post-pandemic era. Co-Founder of Talent500, Vikram Ahuja said of the acquisition, “FastNext has managed to carve a niche for itself and has built a great reputation in the job seeking community. By combining FastNext’s recruiting tech products and Talent500’s capabilities, we are paving a new era of AI led talent acquisition market and driving new levels of productivity. Through this acquisition, we will be able to leverage their resources and serve GCCs better."

With remote working gaining global acceptance following the COVID-19 oubreak, HR tech startups have seen a visible spike in demand across industries. Given a slow yet steady economic recovery, organizations are beginning to accelerate workforce planning for the post-COVID landscape, to enable the journey from sustenance to recovery, and while the labor market stays in troubled waters, there has been a marginal uptick in hiring numbers for certain sectors. However, how the current market scenario shapes the ground for technology driven tools across the HR function, will unfold in due time.