Blue-collar workforce management firm BetterPlace Safety Solutions Pvt. Ltd on Monday said it has bought Indonesia-based company MyRobin, marking its foray into the South East Asia market.
However, the startup did not disclose the size of the deal.
In December last year, VCCircle had first reported that BetterPlace is gearing up for its maiden overseas acquisition of a company each in Indonesia and Malaysia by March end.
Started in 2020, MyRobin offers frontline workers on a long and short-term basis to enterprises in Indonesia. It claims to have a community of more than 3 million workers.
The company also provides attendance and performance management services, embedded financial services like early wage and discounts on daily needs and has its own frontline workforce upskilling platform called MyRobin Academy. It counts enterprises such as Shopee, Astro, Sicepat, E-Fishery and Kopi Kenangan, among others, as its clients.
MyRobin’s acquisition will help BetterPlace to tap the workforce management market in South-East Asia, which it considers to be as large as $280 billion, the company said in a statement.
The deal comes nearly two months after Bengaluru-based BetterPlace had raised $40 million in its extended Series C round of funding from Macquarie Capital and Site Capital Partners, with Jungle Ventures and British International Investment.
Flushed with cash, BetterPlace is also planning to enter Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines over the next two quarters via an organic approach as well as mergers and acquisitions to expand its presence in the region.
“As the largest player in Asia today, we are thrilled to welcome MyRobin to the BetterPlace family and further our vision towards formalizing the frontline workforce globally. With our technology and MyRobin’s expertise in operating in Indonesia, we would be able to introduce equitable opportunities for the frontline segment,” said Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and group chief executive officer at BetterPlace.
The company has set aside $20 million for spending in the SEA this year. In the coming years, it aims to boost its spending in the region to $60-100 million as it expands into newer geographies.
Founded in 2015 by Agarwala and Uday Singh, BetterPlace offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It helps its clients in handling the entire lifecycle of their blue-collar workforce by providing them with hiring, background verification and digital onboarding services. The platform also provides training, attendance management, payroll services and compliance services.
BetterPlace reported a five-fold growth in revenue in the financial year ended March 2022 at about Rs 275 crore, Agarwala had said in an earlier interaction with VCCircle. The company is also targetting to achieve a three-fold growth in revenue in FY23.
However, with mighty global expansion plans as well as product diversification ploys in place, BetterPlace has postponed its target to turn profitable by 2024 to 2025.
