Recruitment platform TalentPad raises funding from Helion Ventures

India’s numerous engineering colleges produce over a million engineers every year. Only 18 percent of them are employable, a recent study found. Top employers in the country, IT biggies, and tech startups find it tough to spot the most eligible ones – especially in the internet and analytics space – among those million freshers.

That is the problem that Delhi-based startup TalentPad attempts to solve. For employers, it promises to find premium candidates, and find them fast. To scale this up, TalentPad just raised its first round of institutional funding from Helion Advisors.

Mayank Jain, Nikhil Vij, and Raghav Jain – alumni of IIT and IIM – founded TalentPad in February 2014. The startup runs on a curated marketplace model. It screens candidates as well as companies looking to hire them. About 150 employers use it currently, including InMobi, MakeMyTrip, Snapdeal, and BookMyShow.

The companies get to access a ready pool of about 100 pre-screened candidates every month, thus reducing the time and effort required in hiring. While TalentPad services are free for job-seekers, it charges employers a percentage of the gross salary for every candidate hired.

Ritesh Banglani, Partner with Helion Advisors, will join the board of the startup. “Helion has a track record of backing some of the best internet companies in India and we plan to leverage their significant knowhow of the consumer internet segment, for our growth,” co-founder and CEO Mayank Jain said in a company statement.

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