Recruitment Platform For Artists TalentNext Raises $1 Mn Seed Funding

Entertainment tech platform TalentNext has raised $1 Mn Seed funding led by Karanpal Singh (Managing Director at KJS Cement) and other angel investors.

Founded by Shekhar Purohit, Mumbai-based TalentNext is a verified recruitment portal for the Indian entertainment industry, connecting film and production houses to a variety of talents online. It connects actors/models, dancers, musicians, voiceovers, etc., to the casting community for films, televisions shows, commercial ad films, live events, theatre (performing arts) and other formats of entertainment.

Talking about the investment Shekhar Purohit, CEO TalentNext.com, said “Our aim is to support and augment the growth of promising talent across the country. This investment helps us expand to hundreds of cities across India and beyond the typical metropolitan and Tier-1 Regions.  We will provide millions of talent and casting professionals, with direct access to each other—through TalentNext.com.”

The startup is also planning to expand to other regions in the next few weeks. As per the founder, TalentNext has partnered with over 30 casting directors in Mumbai and has partnerships with industry players including Dharma Productions, OML, and Balaji Telefilms.

As per its website, casting professionals list an audition or job for free while being able to manage applications and browse through talents profiles online. Users can sign up for free and create a basic profile on the platform. For a small monthly fee, they can upgrade to a tiered membership model that allows for unlimited access to auditions, jobs, higher level status on the trending or verified profile, and additional storage for photos, videos, and audio files to the profile.

TalentNext has a cost-free model as of now. The platform plans to monetise it once it gains traction. “We will charge a small fee for people who will use the platform to get in touch with recruiters,” said Purohit. The platform claims to receive over 250 signups through Facebook on a daily basis and posts over 50 jobs every day.

In September this year, online classifieds major, Quikr announced the launch of Dazzlr, a talent discovery platform that aims at bringing together actors, casting professionals, directors, and producers.