Eloquent Info Solutions Pvt Ltd, which runs blue-collar recruitment startup WorkIndia, on Tuesday said it has secured $1.5 million (around Rs 11 crore) funding from venture debt firm BlackSoil.
The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use the fresh proceeds to expand its product footprint across India and ramp up its fraud detection technology.
Founded in 2015 by Moiz Arsiwala, Kunal Patil and Nilesh Dungarwal, WorkIndia is focused on solving structural challenges faced by blue/grey collar employees by providing them a platform for accessing jobs.
The platform claims to have presence across 600 cities, catering to 1.5 million small and mid-sized businesses and 25 million candidates.
“We are delighted to partner with BlackSoil to expand our presence and provide newfound opportunities to India’s blue and grey collar workforce and look forward to strengthening our relationship further with the years to come," said Dungarwal.
In 2020, the startup raised Rs 42 crore (approximately $5.89 million) from Chinese technology and consumer devices conglomerate Xiaomi.
It raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Singapore-based early-stage technology fund Beenext and also raised an undisclosed amount from Japanese venture capital investor Asuka Holdings in 2016.
WorkIndia raised $500,000 (around Rs 3.25 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Citrus Pay founder Satyen Kothari in 2015.
“We are thrilled to be associated with Work India in their journey towards making the recruitment process for blue and grey collar employers and candidates easy. Apart from streamlining the process and helping provide the candidates vetted opportunities using their deep tech expertise, the company is one the few players in the industry that has been able to successfully monetise operations, achieve scale and virality," said Ankur Bansal, Co-Founder of BlackSoil.
BlackSoil currently manages an alternative credit platform consisting of an RBI-registered non-banking financial company (NBFC) and four SEBI-registered alternative investment funds.
Its notable investments include unicorns such as Udaan, Infra.Market, Zetwerk, OYO Rooms and Spinny, among others.
Recently, BlackSoil Capital said it has invested growth capital of over $4.5 million (around Rs 34.2 crore) in three startups -BluSmart Mobility, BigHaat and LoanTap.
In January, BlackSoil announced that it has invested $80 million in 20 transactions in 2021, registering a 2.5 times growth in terms of value and 1.8 times growth in terms of volume of investments over 2020.
In the same month, BlackSoil invested in LivFin India Pvt. Ltd, a financial technology firm focused on small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
