Fintech startup Zeta, which is promoted by Bhavin Turakhia and offers digital employee solutions, has picked up a minority stake in Gurugram-headquartered PeopleStrong HR Services Pvt. Ltd for an undisclosed amount.
The investment comes a little less than a year after domestic private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management had picked up a majority stake in PeopleStrong for about Rs 400 crore.
Multiples Alternate Asset Management and mortage lender HDFC Ltd together own about three-fourths of PeopleStrong.
“Our strong focus on employee experience, coupled with benefits and payroll make a comprehensive offering, taking a significant leap ahead of traditional HR ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning] solutions,†said Pankaj Bansal, founder and chief executive officer of PeopleStrong.
Set up in 2005, the HR services firm says it has around 1,000 employees and more than 170 customers across industries. Prominent clients include Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC Life Insurance and News Corp VCCircle, among others.
PeopleStrong has made three acquistions so far - Lumis Partners-backed Integrated Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd in 2013, Big Bytes Solutions Pvt. Ltd in October 2014 and Summit HR's frontline business in 2011.
“PeopleStrong has created a unique and impressive story in the HR and HR tech market,†said Turakhia.
Mumbai-headquartered Zeta deals with digitised employee benefits, rewards and expense management. In 2016, Zeta had launched a cloud-based suite called Optima that offers digitised meal vouchers, fuel and travel card, medical reimbursements and gift cards, among others. The firm claims to serve more than 3.5 lakh users.
Operated by Better World Technology Pvt. Ltd, Zeta was founded in April 2015 by Turakhia and Directi Group colleague Ramki Gaddipati.
This marks Zeta's second investment in the past seven months. Last June, the firm had made an undisclosed equity investment for a small stake in ZingHR, a cloud-based employee management platform which leverages technologies such as machine learning in recruitment, HR analytics, geo-fencing, geo-tagging and Aadhaar-based digital on-boarding.