GigIndia Raises INR 7.6 Cr In A Pre-Series A Funding To Invest In Talent And Technology

Freelance marketplace GigIndia has raised INR 7.6 Cr in a pre-Series A funding round with additional influx from two angel investors—Anjali Bansal, founder at Avaana Capital, and Vineet Patni, former president of Bajaj Allianz.

With the fresh capital, the company plans to strengthen its technology platform for building a larger community of gig workers and also invest in hiring talent and technology.

Pune-based GigIndia is a freelancer marketplace founded by Sahil Sharma and Aditya Shirole in 2017. The company focuses on fulfilling the short-term or micro job requirements of companies such as influencers, tele callers, auditors, translators, and field agents.

“With the additional funding, we plan to rapidly scale our business while continuing to invest in talent and technology,” told Sharma.

The startup claims to have around 800,000 gig workers on its platforms spread across more than 200 cities and the Pune-based startup claims to have completed 13 Mn gig hours between March and November this year. The names of the clients of GigIndia include Swiggy, SHAREit, ShareChat, Paytm, BookMyShow, and Uber among others.

The startup competes with the likes of Awign Enterprises, BetterPlace, TeamLease and others. Last year, the company had raised an undisclosed sum from technology veterans including S Ramadorai, former Tata Consultancy Services CEO; Kiran Deshpande, former CEO of Tech Mahindra; Ravi Nigam, ex MD and cofounder of Tasty Bite Eatables; and Shashank Deshpande, cofounder of Clarice Technologies. 

In 2018, GigIndia had raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from angel investors including Jessica Wong, Founding Managing Partner of Ganesh Ventures; Hiro Mashita, Director at M&S Partners; Xue Manzi, Director-Manzi Fund and Yiyun Zhang, CEO at Pocket Part Time.

The startup claimed that there has been a surge in the number of gig workers from Tier-II, III and IV cities which rose from 5.22% of the total workforce in March to 58.11% in September whereas the number of female gig workers increased 287% in a six-month period between April and October.

This year has been quite tough for gig workers as there were numerous protests engaged with food delivery startups such as Swiggy, as well as cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber. The representing unions claim that they have faced severe losses in income and shortfall in wages amid the pandemic.

The Code on Social Security, 2020, was also passed in Parliament this year where its draft rules said that companies employing gig workers would have to make 1-2% of their annual turnover available for ensuring social security of their workers.