Construction tech startup Project Hero, has raised $3.2 million (around Rs 25.5 crore) in seed funding led by Ankur Capital and Omidyar Network India, the company announced on Tuesday.
The round also saw participation from Titan Capital and other undisclosed angel investors.
The company said it will be using fresh funds to scale up its technology, onboard more talent on the platform, and expand its market presence.
Earlier, the Bengaluru-based startup had raised $450,000 from Titan Capital, Anupam Mittal and Varun Alagh in July 2021.
Founded by Satya Vyas, Pukhraj Grewal and Raghu Chopra, Project Hero works with contractors and helps them recruit and manage the workforce, typically construction workers of trades such as bar bending, shuttering masons, and painters among others. The startup claims to have over 4 lakhs construction workers on its platform and has placed over 3,000 workers on projects.
All three founders are alumni from IIT Roorkee.
Before launching Project Hero, Vyas, Grewal and Chopra ran a general contracting company for over 5 years. Since raising funds the company has strengthened its team with former Google official Sidhant Panda and ex-PayU executive Sidharth Maheshwari, joining the founding team as chief technology officer and vice president respectively.
“The Indian construction labour market is highly fragmented and fraught with multiple middlemen in between. They deliver a very bad experience to the contractor and the labour both. Due to a lack of avenues, labourers rely on these middlemen to find work and manage their earnings. These workers never become a part of a formal workforce because their employment record and payroll record is not formally captured anywhere but only on pen and paper at best,” Vyas said.
He added, “Contractors lose significant time and money due to this existing structure. But with the advent of mobile phone penetration, we feel this can be changed. We also feel a product first approach is a right way to solve these problems.”