OLX Group Acquires Aasaanjobs To Strengthen Its Jobs Vertical

The OLX Group has acquired Mumbai-based online recruitment marketplace Aasaanjobs for an undisclosed amount. The company will utilise the acquired assets to strengthen its jobs vertical in the blue and grey collar jobs market and to further solidify its position in the Indian jobs classified market.

Aasaanjobs was founded in 2013 by Dinesh Goel, Aditya Gupta, Gaurav Toshniwal, Kunal Jadhav, and Siddhartha Das. It is an end-to-end recruitment marketplace connecting employers, consultants, and job seekers. Earlier, in June 2017, the company acquired Noida-based mHire.

According to Goel, Aasaanjobs was inspired by the large unregulated blue/grey collar jobs segment in India where there is a massive untapped opportunity. “Having understood the need gap in this segment over the last three years as we look to scale these numbers and expand to other cities, we found OLX to be a natural fit for our vision,” he added.

OLX Markets CEO Tim Hilpert said that this acquisition resonates with OLX’s commitment to growing its verticals strategically and leveraging technology for better user experience on its platform.

Blue & Grey Collar Jobs: A Market With Potential

According to a recent study by OLX, in urban centres alone, more than 70 Mn blue and grey collar job opportunities are available each year while the workforce stands at 60 Mn workers annually, signalling significant scope for growth in the sector.

In 2016, a joint report by Google and KPMG predicted that the online jobs market is expected to double by 2020. In March 2018, another media report indicated that India’s job market is likely to see a 15-20% growth in hiring in 2019 “on the heels of improving business outlook and industry confidence supported by GDP growth.”

One of the primary competitors of OLX in the jobs classified segment is QuikrJobs. In June 2016, Quikr had also acquired online hiring platform Hiree to strengthen QuikrJobs.

Apart from jobs, another segment OLX is aggressively focusing on is used car segment. In November 2018, OLX joined hands with Germany-based Frontier Car Group (FCG) to launch its offline used car selling stores called ‘Cash My Car’. The company claims to have an overall market share of 77% in the Indian used cars segment.

After more than a decade of presence in India, OLX today reaches over 4,000 cities in India. The platform, which has nearly 40 Mn monthly active users in India, currently runs an online platform for buying and selling of pre-owned cars, a segment that until recently was dominated by offline unorganised dealers. In FY18, it posted a 93.6% increase in total income at $24.45 Mn (INR 179.26 Cr).

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