BetterPlace Secures $40 Mn Funding From Jungle Ventures, BII, Others

Blue-collar workforce management startup BetterPlace has raised $40 Mn in Series C funding round from existing investors Jungle Ventures and British International Investment (BII) and a few new investors. 

The development has come five months after Inc42 reported that BetterPlace was raising $12 Mn (INR 96 Cr) from Singapore-based Jungle Ventures. 

BetterPlace intends to use the fresh capital to enhance tech offerings and reinforce AI capabilities. Further, the additional funds will also be used for geographical expansion. 

Set up in 2015 by Pravin Agarwala and Uday Singh, BetterPlace initially offered KYC verification services but later pivoted the business model and began offering employee lifecycle management services such as onboarding, background verification, training, certification, attendance management and employees upskilling, among others. 

“Healthy financial performance coupled with extensive innovation and growth has enabled BetterPlace to become one of the leading players in modernizing the largely informal sector of frontline workforce management. BetterPlace is set to achieve greater heights and we are all excited to be part of this growth journey,” said Amit Anand, founding partner of Jungle Ventures.

The startup currently boasts of working with more than 1,100 companies. It said that its B2C vertical has provided more than 1 Mn blue and gray-collar job opportunities and also offered upskilling and social learning programs to more than 400 Mn blue-collar employees. 

It claims to record a 5X year-on-year revenue growth in the financial year 2022 (FY22) and further, aiming to clock an annualised revenue of over $100 Mn in the financial year 2023 (FY23).

“The frontline workforce management market in Asia is a $400 Bn opportunity and we are the only full-suite horizontal SaaS for enterprises and a platform catering to this segment. Our next growth trajectory is about deepening our offerings & building integrated tech solutions that will empower enterprises and frontline workers,” said Pravin Agarwala, cofounder and group CEO of BetterPlace.

A year back, it raised $24 Mn in Series C funding round. Its cap table includes CX Partners, Jungle Partners, CDC Group, Capria Ventures, 3one4 Capital and Unitus Ventures, among others. 

Since last year, it has bought four startups–OkayGo, Olx People and Waah Jobs, and Oust Labs.

In the financial year 2021, it reported a loss and expenses at INR 18.1 Cr and INR 68.8 Cr respectively. Meanwhile, its revenue stood at INR 52.4 Cr in the corresponding period.

In India’s workforce management space, it competes with the likes of JustRojgar, Spayee, and Apna, among others.