Belong, a Bengaluru-based recruitment startup has effectively raised 67 crore ($10 million) in its series B round funding. The funding was majorly led by Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm. The recruitment startup, Belong which assists companies to recruit employees using technology will use these funds to widen its client base and improve its product.   Besides major funding, another big move - Managing Director of Sequoia Capital India, Gautam Mago is now part of board of directors of Belong. 

Started in 2014, Belong co-founders include Sudheendra Chilappagari, Rishabh Kaul, Vijay Sharma and Saiteja Veera.  

When contacted, Vijay Sharma, CEO and Co-founder of Belong said, “Talented candidates today are overwhelmed by the ‘spray-and-pray’ tactics of traditional recruiting. Not only does it annoy them, but it also leads to poor engagement and conversions for recruiters. With Belong, hiring efforts can be highly targeted and personalized to generate win-win conversations where the company’s offering and the candidate’s needs are truly aligned. This is a vision for the future of recruiting, and we are thrilled to have Gautam and Sequoia India on this journey with us.”

Also, another recent big news, which reinforced the positive outlook for the HR Industry was Multiples Alternate Asset Management plans to acquire a controlling stake in human resources (HR) outsourcing and technology firm PeopleStrong for Rs 400 crore. HR sector has been growing tremendously in the last 12 months as more and more home-grown HR businesses are scaling up. The Indian HR industry is estimated to be upwards of Rs 30,000 crore in value PE firm.  Additional investments happening in the HR space include: Greytip Software, a leading provider of HR and Payroll solutions to SMEs & enterprises across India, raised Rs 35 crore in its series B round of funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Blume Ventures expand its business. Darwinbox, a Hyderabad-based HR software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup has raised seed funding led by Mohandas Pai's 3one4 Capital, Endiya Partners and Tracxn Labs to fuel their expansion plans.

Past few months have witnessed, recent surge in HR Tech Startups space. The HR Technology landscape has emerged as a strong magnet for investors in recent years. Funding and deal activity has increased by leaps and bounds, with the industry touching new heights in 2015-16. In both the years combined, HR technology startups raised $4.36 billion in funding across 733 deals globally (till 27th October, 2016). In India, there was a funding of $65 million across 47 deals in 2015 and 2016. 

In June 2015, Belong had raised $5 million from Blume Ventures, Matrix, and others. The existing partners also participated in the B round funding. The company claims to have grown manifolds since its inception. Its mid-market and enterprise customers have doubled. 

Belong provides outbound hiring Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution to industry leaders like Cisco, Amazon, UHG, Tesco, Reliance Jio and ThoughtWorks. The company’s platform helps businesses discover and target high-fit talent, engage candidates through personalized interactions, and accelerate hiring cycles at scale.

“With Belong, our recruiters are able to quickly cut through the noise, identify the right people with much greater accuracy and generate conversions more effectively than on mainstream hiring platforms. In today’s candidate-centric market, I’d say data-driven outbound hiring is clearly the most intelligent and scientific way to scale recruiting,” said Savita Hortikar, Head of Talent Acquisition - India, at ThoughtWorks.

The year 2016 has been an anomaly with cumulative funding ( disclosed ) being 16 million (till September 2016). Globally $1.98 billion funding has been received , according to a report   by CB Insights2, a global analytic firm.  

The rise of HRtech startups can be attributed to many factors. Mainly, the biggest reason could be  overall growth of the Indian startup ecosystem, which has empowered to new-age entrepreneurs and investors  to break the barriers and shed fears to start something new and radical.