Great Manager Institute (GMI), a people management startup which provides personalised coaching, has raised $283,00 (approximately Rs 2 crore at current exchange rates) from a clutch of individual investors.
The investors include Bala Malladi, CEO at telecom company ACT Fibernet; Srikanth Karra, the CHRO at IT firm Mphasis; and Ramesh Shankar, the former CHRO of Siemens.
The firm raised the capital at a fair market value (FMV) of $6 million (around Rs 42.51 crore), and it is also seeking to raise more funds at a proposed valuation of $15 million (around Rs 106.28 crore).
The Mumbai-based firm told VCCircle the investors will advise the company in various capacities. Malladi has joined GMI’s India board of advisors.
Ashwin Srivastava, co-founder at GMI, said the firm is aiming to create an ecosystem around people management that will combine intelligent profiling and matching with coaching and guidance.
Separately, Srikanth Karra said GMI was enabling a new model of reskilling and engaging managerial staff at organisations. “The role of a manager is undergoing a change like never before. Collaborative platforms and agile methodologies are redefining the skill sets and roles of the management layer,” he said.
GMI, which is operated by Great Manager Research and Consultancy Pvt. Ltd, was founded by Ashwin Srivastava, Prasenjit Bhattacharya, and Dalreen Patrao. The firm says it is operationally profitable and has brought on the investors for strategic advice. It will use the funds for growth, global branding and research.
The company is staffed by human resources, content, client and technology professionals. It provides services such as mentor programmes and think tanks, and also conducts the Great People Manager Study, according to its website.
Deals in the HR segment
The bet on GMI is the latest by investors in the larger human resources ecosystem. Such startups seek to address India’s growing need for talent while, at the same time, addressing gaps in current traditional HR and people management systems.
In August, HR-technology startup Talview Inc. raised $6.75 million (around Rs 48.09 crore) in a Series A funding round from investors including the US-based Storm Ventures, Inventus Capital, Eileses Capital and Emergent Ventures.
In June, Kredily raised $750,000 (around Rs 5.23 crore) in a seed funding round led by Fosun RZ Capital, an affiliate of Chinese conglomerate Fosun Group.
In the same month, Indonesian startup Go-Jek acquihired Bengaluru-based artificial intelligence recruitment platform AirCTO