Anirudh Saligrama
10 Jun. 16, GURGAON: Gurgaon-based entry-level talent acquisition start up, Kickstart Jobs raised undisclosed value of seed funding form its investors – ah! Ventures, the funding round also witnessed investments form others: Mohit Satyanand – Chairman of Team Works Art, Vivek Joshi – Founder of Wyzen Tech, Amit Banati – President (Asia Pacific) of Kellogg’s, Arun Khanna – President (Asia), Dun and Bradstreet.
Commenting on this investment rounds, Samriddhi Malhotra – co-founder of Kickstart Jobs said, “The market for entry level hiring is one with both tremendous potential as well as enormous challenges. None of the solutions present in the market today have been able to really delve into the job seeker’s psyche and create a solution that works for both candidates and employers. Kickstart is attempting to do just that. We have closely observed existing patterns of job seeking at the entry level workforce and are leveraging this existing pattern and enabling it with technology.”
On working with ah! Ventures, co-founder Abhishek Srivastava, “ah! Ventures has been most helpful during our period of fundraise. We approached ah! Ventures to close our funding requirement and they proactively helped us close in 5 days, in which they also participated. Their network is huge and the response has been extremely prompt. We wanted to bring ah! Ventures onboard as their reach and connections will keep us in good stead for future. We hope to use their industry and investor connects to scale our business.”
“As an investor, the growth that is about to unfold in this entry-level jobs sector in the near future is evident to me. This growth and spurt of service offerings in the sector is especially lucrative for the currently existing workforce of over 500+ million in the blue & grey collar ecosystem of India. And, given the fact that this number is increasing at about 12 million per year, the need to effectively harness these human resources becomes all the more essential. ah! Ventures and it’s investors saw that potential in Kickstart Jobs, not only in terms of their strong team but also in their unique methodology in operating and creating value for both, the job seeker & the employer. In our opinion such a product was long overdue, especially in a growing market like India, and we are sure to see stupendous success in the future of Kickstart Jobs,” said Harshad Lahoti, Founder and CEO of ah! Ventures from an investor point of view.
The company was started in 2015, provides solution to an inherent problem in the highly fragmented entry level workforce ecosystem. Kickstart Jobs targets in building a scalable platform to connect entry level candidates with prospective employers and vice versa. The company is already operational in the key north Indian territories of Delhi, Noida and Gurgaon, with a workforce of 10 employees and 2 promoters. It has, in this short span of time, registered 5000+ candidates, enlisted about 3000 vacancies, conducted 2000+ interviews and boasts of a month on month growth of 100% in the number of candidates scheduled for interviews through their platform.