Talent Technology Startup Shortlist Raises $2 Mn In Series A Funding

Mumbai-based talent vetting company Shortlist has raised $2 Mn (INR 14.2 Cr) in Series A funding led by Blue Haven Ventures, along with participation from Zephyr Acorn, Compass Venture Capital, Potencia Ventures, and others.

The company plans to use the funds to expand outreach to job seekers, improve its algorithmic matching, and expand geographically.

Founded in 2016 by Simon Desjardins, Paul Breloff and Matt Schnuck, Shortlist screens candidates using predictive chat-based interviews and online competency-based assessments. The company boasts of clients such as Ather Energy, Dunzo, ITC Ltd, DHL, and Toppr, UberEATS.

Paul Breloff, cofounder and CEO, Shortlist, said, “We’re focused on finding the right measure of tech-powered scale and human-driven curation to build the best teams, with a focus on quality over quantity. This round and our new partners will help us accelerate our efforts to get employers to ditch the CV in favour of more predictive measures of fit.”

With its offices in Nairobi, Palo Alto, Hyderabad and Mumbai, Shortlist combines technology and human touch to understand job-seekers’ skills, attitude, and motivation, fueling better hiring outcomes for employers across East Africa and India. It claims to have screened over 400K candidates for over 300 clients.

Prior to this round, the company raised $1 Mn (INR 7.1 Cr) seed capital from AHL Venture Partners, Shell Foundation, and University Ventures in September 2017.

Shortlist’s products suite includes a chatbot, online skills-based assessments and helps companies automate the recruitment process and collect more robust data on candidate skills and fit. Shortlist also offers executive search, HR advisory and training services.

Lauren Cochran, managing director at Blue Haven Ventures said, “Hiring high-quality people in emerging markets takes too much time and slows teams down. Shortlist delivers a best-in-class solution to the human capital challenge from entry and mid-level hires to senior level executive search.”

The company plans to expand its footprint within and beyond East Africa in 2019.

Indian startups have been increasingly experimenting with the human resources process as well and implementing new age technologies like artificial intelligence to improve and ease out the efficiency in the job market and hiring process.

The Indian HRTech industry is estimated to be worth $6.29 Bn (INR 40,000 Cr). In 2017, nearly $2 Bn was invested in HRTech companies globally.

In the HRTech space, we have startups like Y Combinator graduate Leena AI, AI and machine learning startups Bash and Skillate, along with EdGE Networks, PeopleStrong, Darwinbox among others.

According to Inc42’s Annual Tech Startup Funding Report 2018, enterprisetech was the second top-sector for fundings in 2018 with 118 funding deals worth $775 Mn.