Betterplace Safety Solutions Pvt Ltd, a platform that helps firms manage blue-collar workers, on Tuesday said it has raised $10 million (Rs 74 crore) in its Series B funding round.
The investment round was led by new investor Jungle Ventures, said Betterplace in a statement. Existing investors Unitus Ventures, 3One4 Capital, and Venture Highway also participated in the round, it added.
The fresh capital will help the company to develop products, expand its presence in the small and medium enterprises (SME) space and grow internationally.
The startup also aims to boost its hire-engage-manage digital solutions that it says connect over 150 million blue-collar workers to enterprises.
Betterplace was founded in 2015 by Pravin Agarwala and Uday Singh. Its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform helps companies to manage the entire lifecycle of their blue-collar workforce by providing them services such as hiring, background verification and digital onboarding of the worker.
It also offers training, attendance management, payroll services and compliance services.
The startup says it has partnered with companies such as Amazon, Zomato, Flipkart, Accenture, L&T and Mahindra Logistics.
Betterplace said that, with this funding, it has raised $16 million in total.
The startup had previously raised $3 million in a Series A round of funding led by 3one4 Capital in 2018.
The Bengaluru-based company had initially raised $970,000 (Rs 6.6 crore) in seed funding from India-focused early-stage investor Unitus Ventures in February 2016. In the same year, it had received an undisclosed amount of investment from Venture Highway.
One of the well-known players in the blue-collar segment is Babajob Services Pvt Ltd, which in 2017 was acquired by online classifieds site Quikr India Pvt. Ltd. Babajob had raised $10 million from Australian company SEEK Ltd in 2015.
A few other players in the blue-collar segment have also raised funding this year.
Jobshob Tech Pvt Ltd, which operates blue-collar worker-focused employment and recruitment platform MyKaam, raised funding from startup incubator and accelerator Venture Catalysts in June.
In February, WorkIndia, a job portal for blue-collar workers, raised Rs 42 crore from Chinese technology and consumer devices conglomerate Xiaomi.
Jungle Ventures
The Singapore-based early-stage investor had raised $240 million (Rs 1,700 crore) for its third venture capital fund in October last year. It has Tata Sons Ltd chairman emeritus Ratan Tata as an adviser.
The VC firm focuses on three themes: consumer brands for the digitally native; platforms that enable digital transformation of SMEs; global technology leaders born in Asia.
In India, the VC firm’s bets include Livspace, Moglix, Paysense and Mobikon.
