SUMMARY
Ant Farm is a digital innovation company founded by Khiani in 2013
According to the company, the move is a planned one to allow Khiani to focus on his startup in the HRtech space
Given the job market in our country, my next startup will focus on enabling the next billion jobs, he said
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Rishi Khiani has stepped down from day-to-day operations at Ant Farm, the digital innovation company that he founded in 2013. He will, however, continue to be a promoter shareholder in Ant Farm and its downstream companies. Cofounder Upen Roop Rai will lead Ant Farm.
According to the company statement, the move is a planned one so that he can focus on his startup in the HRtech space. “I founded Ant Farm back in 2013 when India had just seen a disruption in the startup space. The idea was to accelerate companies during their early-stage with an intensive hands-on approach backed by an experienced team in the given sector. It was a thrilling experience to build some great companies in the last eight years,” Khiani said
Ant Farm is a studio incubator that builds businesses and scales up disruptive ideas. The company’s key investors including Bay Capital, investors such as Ravi Dhariwal, Radhakishan Damani and Sat Pal Khattar.
Its portfolio companies include adtech and content company Fork Media Group that owns and operates Curly Tales, Hauterfly, IGN, Mashable, FameFox and AskMen, multi-category delivery startup Scootsy that was acquired by Swiggy, mobile fitness platform RevoFit and Hello Green, a healthy and affordable meal delivery service.
The former CEO of Times Internet sold his first startup UrbanEye Media to the Network18 group in 2006. Khiani now plans to enter the job-tech industry to bridge the gap between jobs and job seekers across various industries. “Given the current scenario of the economy and the job market in our country, my next startup will focus on enabling the next billion jobs. Given that ambition and the opportunity it was important to clear my desk of all other responsibilities,” he said.
HRtech startups are now using psychology and data analytics for better talent management. According to the Research and Markets 2018 report, the talent assessment market in HRtech is projected to cross $750 Mn by 2021. Some of the startups operating in the HRtech space include Darwinbox, Shortlist, Salaryfits, DoSelect, Talview, Scriptifi, Talview and more.
According to DataLabs by Inc42, the HRtech sector garnered $504.8 Mn funding in 2018, registering a 207% rise from $164.2 Mn funding in 2014.
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