Skillbee Raises $3.2 Mn Funding To Help Migrant Workers Get Jobs

Skillbee, a startup that helps migrant workers get jobs, has raised $3.2 Mn in a seed funding round from Good Capital and Vibe Capital. 

The round saw participation from investors –Access Bridge Ventures and Wamda Capital, and Bharat Founders Fund including, Rahul Chaudhary from Treebo, Zishaan Hayath from Toppr, Vikram Chopra from Cars24, Saurabh Garg from NoBroker, and Harpreet Singh Grover from CoCubes. 

“The participation of such impeccable investors and founder operators in this round of funding and their faith in our mission and vision goes on to show how important the human capital issue is. We are grateful to our investors that they are entrusting us to offer solutions and bring a massive positive change in the lives of migrant workers,” said Gautham Vinjamuri, cofounder of Skillbee. 

Skillbee will deploy funds to strengthen its presence among migrant workers and double the number of companies hiring through it. It also plans to enhance the bouquet of services the app offers.

Ujjawal Chauhan, cofounder of Skillbee told Inc42 that the startup will be investing funds in three areas – business expansion in India, adding new services to the platform and partnering with other companies to offer credit and insurance services to blue-collar workers. 

Founded in 2020 by Chauhan and Gautham Vinjamuri, Skillbee helps international migrant workers with job opportunities. The startup claims to have over 500K migrant workers registered users on its platform. 

It further claims that more than 20K companies have signed up to the app to hire workers from various countries including India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Philippines, and other African countries. 

Chauhan further told Inc42 that Skillbee has partnered with 10 brands in the UAE that will be hiring migrant workers using its platform. To upskill the workers, the startup is associating with training institutes to fulfill UAE demand for delivery workforce. 

While scaling its business in India, the startup will primarily focus on job aspirants in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh as these states show an increasing efflux of blue-collar workers going to Dubai and Saudi Arabia. 

Rohan Malhotra, Managing Partner at Good Capital, said, “India has one of the largest human capital pools and demographic dividends in the world, yet we’ve not been able to provide a substantial portion of the population with adequate opportunities. The borders between countries are shrinking, and we believe Skillbee will be the go-to platform that bridges jobs in developed countries and workers in developing nations.”

According to a BCG report, the workforce shortage crisis in developed countries poses a $10 Tn risk. For example, 90% of the UAE’s workforce comprises international migrant workers. Subsequently, these migrant workers are not just important in helping build the infrastructure and services industry of developed countries, but also in supporting their home countries. In 2020, remittances to India from migrant workers abroad amounted to $83 Bn, while in Pakistan it was about $26 Bn.

In October 2021, recruitment startup for blue and grey collar workers, Betterplace had acquired micro-learning SaaS platform Oust Labs in an all cash deal. The acquisition helped the startup in offering digital skilling and training solutions to upskill blue collar workers.

Betterplace offers a wide spectrum of services including hiring, assessment, attendance management, payroll, compliance and more. It claims to work with more than 1,000 enterprises and has worked with more than 8.1 Mn workers.

In June 2021, recruitment platform for grey and blue-collar workers Apna bagged $70 Mn in Series B funding round led by Insight Partners and Tiger Global. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Sequoia Capital India, Lightspeed India, Greenoaks Capital and Rocketship VC.