WorkIndia raises USD 12 million from Nintendo founding family & others

New Delhi: Blue and grey collar job portal WorkIndia has raised USD 12 million, about Rs 98 crore, in a funding round led by the founding family of Nintendo, Yamauchi No.10 Family Office, and investment firm Insitor, the company said on Tuesday.

Tokyo stock exchange-listed SBI Investment and eye-wear firm Persol also participated in the funding round, the company said in a statement.

WorkIndia plans to utilise the fund in strengthening its product and data science capabilities including entry into the Southeast Asian blue-collar market.

"With the new round of funding, WorkIndia will further strengthen its product and data science capabilities including entry into the yet untapped Southeast Asian blue-collar market," WorkIndia Co-founder and CEO Kunal Patil said.

WorkIndia claims to have put in place deep technology that not only administers and digitises the employment process but also mitigates any margin of fraud in hiring.

"WorkIndia's unique relevance matching system between job seekers' skills and employers' needs, based on full, partial, and waterfall matching has done a phenomenal job in this respect. This value proposition and the data-driven platform backed by AI-based technology with the massive behavioral data gathered by WorkIndia were the key reasons for our investment," SBI Investment Co, the investment arm of SBI Holdings Inc, Director Tomoyuki Nii said.

WorkIndia covers deep geography with 772 cities across 28 states and 8 Union Territories in India. The platform claims to cater to the hiring needs of over 1.5 million small and medium businesses and multiple large corporations.

Yamauchi No.10 Family Office Chief Investment Officer Hirowaka Murakami said achieving rapid revenue growth while demonstrating high unit economics and a negative working capital model is no easy feat.

"WorkIndia has consistently demonstrated this for over a year. We are honoured to be a part of WorkIndia's journey and look forward to supporting them as they expand rapidly in this wild west of a blue-collar segment," Murakami said.

Insitor Co-Founder Nicholas Lazos said WorkIndia eliminates intermediaries and fraudulent jobs, building trust for both employers and employees, and ensuring a more inclusive and fair labour market.

"We are excited to support WorkIndia in further consolidating its leadership position," Lazos said.