Mumbai-based talent technology startup Shortlist has raised ₹14 crores ($2 million) in series A round of funding from Blue Haven Ventures, Zephyr Acorn, Compass Venture Capital, Potencia Ventures and some other venture firms. The three-year-old startup plans to use the freshly raised capital to boost its marketing and onboard more job seekers, improve its algorithms to match job seekers with employers as well as expand its footprint globally.
Founded by Simon Desjardins, Paul Breloff and Matt Schnuck in 2016, the startup uses predictive chat-based interviews as well as online competency-based assessments to screen candidates beforehand. With clients like Ather Energy, Dunzo, ITC Ltd, DHL, UberEATS and Toppr, the company operates with offices in Palo Alto, Nairobi, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Paul Breloff, co-founder and CEO, Shortlist, said, “We’re focused on finding the right measure of tech-powered scale and human-driven curation to build the best teams, with a focus on quality over quantity. This round and our new partners will help us accelerate our efforts to get employers to ditch the CV in favour of more predictive measures of fit.”
The startup combines technology and human skills to understand the job seekers aptitude, attitude and motivation to drive better hiring outcomes. It provides its services to job seekers in India and East Africa. Till date, Shortlist has screened more than 4,00,000 candidates for over 300 clients.
Earlier in September 2017, the startup raised ₹7 crores ($1 million) in seed funding from Shell Foundation, AHL Venture Partners and University Ventures. The total funding stands out to be ₹21 crores ($3 million) including the current funding development. Shortlist is actively working to expand its base within and beyond East Africa in 2019.
Lauren Cochran, managing director at Blue Haven Ventures said, “Hiring high-quality people in emerging markets takes too much time and slows teams down. Shortlist delivers a best-in-class solution to the human capital challenge from entry and mid-level hires to senior level executive search.”
The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to disrupt the HR-tech industry is on the rise. Several startups are coming up with innovative ideas to improve and ease out the efficiency in the job market as well as make the hiring process more transparent. The sector is estimated to be worth ₹40,000 crores ($6.29 billion).
