Keka Raises $57 Mn Funding To Help SMEs Automate Key HR Functions

Hyderabad-based HR management startup Keka has raised $57 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Westbridge Capital.

The startup will look to invest in R&D while also expanding its engineering, product and customer success teams. A part of the total funding has already gone into improving the product and offerings along with strengthening customer support.

The round became the largest Series A round in enterprisetech in India by far, improving upon the last best by $1 Mn.

Founded by Vijay Yalamanchilli in 2015, Keka targets small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with a headcount between 50 and 2,000. The Hyderabad-based startup’s flagship product is the Keka platform, which lets SMEs automate crucial HR functions such as payroll, recruiting, leave and attendance and performance management.

Keka’s platform also lets businesses track employee data and gain insights, along with tracking and managing key HR aspects such as culture, expenses, hiring and onboarding.

Keka claims to have more than 6,500 customers across sectors, helping them manage a total of 1.5 Mn employees cumulatively.

Vijay Yalamanchili, CEO of Keka, said, “Business today means serving both customers and employees. While there have been plenty of tools to cover the customer experience, employee experience has taken a back seat. Businesses can no longer afford to do that. We want to help organisations focus better on their core asset – the employees.”

Speaking more on the funding, Yalamanchili said Keka raised the funding at the right time. Incidentally, the HRTech startup was bootstrapped till the latest funding.

Rishit Desai, principal at Westbridge Capital, said, “We are aligned with their vision to build the best mid-market-focused global HR Tech Platform that will allow companies around the world to modernise their HR processes. We are very excited about Keka’s potential and look forward to a long partnership with the company.”

Talking about Keka’s plans, the CEO added, “We want to build a world-class product here in India that will cater to the global market. As we advance, R&D will be our primary area of focus as we expand our engineering, product, and customer success teams.”

HRTech has emerged as one of the more prominent subsectors within the SaaS and enterprisetech ecosystem in India. According to Inc42 data, HRTech startups have raised $1.06 Bn in funding between 2014 and Q3 2022.

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