 "Tech Mahindra logo")
Job-marketplace Saral rozgar, a startup incubated at Tech Mahindra which is in process of being hived off as a separate firm, is looking to expand its user base from 6 million to 100 million over next 4 to 5 years.
The expansion will entail an investment of over $100 million over the five year time period, Vivek Chandok, founder and CEO, Saral Rozgar told Business Standard.
Since its inception in 2012, Tech Mahindra has invested about $10 million in the company. Now that the company is in process of becoming a separate firm, it is looking for investors and private equity firms to raise funds to fuel the next level of growth.
At present, the 300-people company has 6 million job seekers on its platform and 15,000 employers. It has filled 1.5 million job vacancies so far.
"The cost of acquisition of a customer is about Rs. 100 for us. Even if it goes down, it will not be below $1," said Chandok. "Apart from that we have to invest in talent acquisition, marketing and technology as we are looking to automate the entire platform."
To reach that kind of scale, the company will at least need about $100 million, he said, adding that the company is looking to raise money from strategic investors.
Targeted at blue collar workers as well as those in the unorganized sector, Saral Rozgar started as a platform to connect job-seekers with employers through mobile phones. Under the company's business model, job seekers can access the service by buying the Saral Rozgar card for Rs.100, which allows them to register with the company and create their resume online.The company then reaches out to these users through automated calls, screen them and match with employers as per the required criteria.
Earlier, the company was focused on physical retailers to sell recharge cards. However, the company is now looking to convert its 25,000 active physical retailers into digital retailers. The company currently has 6,000 digital retailers. "We have converted 20% of our physical retailers into digital retailers. This enables us to cut down our dependence on call centres as users can fill the template on their devices and create resumes," said Chandok. "The way forward is going to be digital."
Over the last few years, the company's business model has evolved from being a platform that connects job seekers to employers to a comprehensive platform that connects, manages and assesses job seekers for employers while providing courses for skill development and enhancing productivity and efficiency of employees by tracking them over a period of time for companies.
"We are moving up the value chain from just providing (jobseekers') databases for companies to connecting, managing, assessing candidates and enhancing their efficiency and productivity over a period of time by tracking them," said Chandok.
The company, which has a tie up with Cambridge to offer English course for job seekers and provides company specific training course to people who have been hired, is in process of setting up courses such as digital marketing and real estate management for graduates.
"We are also evolving our systems to see if we can run the payroll systems for companies which do bulk hiring. This way the employers will be able to generate offers for candidates on our platform," he said.
Another revenue stream that the company is exploring is by opening up its APIs (application programming interface) that enableaccess to its databases.
"We have opened our APIs to companies which need to reach out to target audience or organize a campaign or do a survey. The companies can user our data base and reach out to people which meet their criteria such as age group or location easily," he said. "We are using analytics to create new business models around our databases."
