4 rising startups in India – Feb 28, 2017

Photo credit: ververidis / 123RF.

Hiring is the ultimate make-or-break decision for any company, and recruiters are always hunting for ways to crack it. SaaS startup Belong, which takes a shot at it with predictive analytics, just got a boost from Sequoia Capital India as well as its earlier investors Matrix Partners India. That’s not all.

Ride-hailing app Ola gets a fresh lease of life, a shared accommodation startup gets backing right after the shutdown of India’s biggest homestay network, and an emotional wellness app rounded up another day in the life of Indian startups.

Belong

Belong, which uses predictive analytics for hiring, today announced series B funding of US$10 million led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from existing investor Matrix Partners India. Gautam Mago, Sequoia Capital India Advisors MD, has joined the Belong board of directors, which includes Tarun Davda, Matrix Partners India MD, and Raju Reddy, founder of Sierra Atlantic.

Three-year-old Belong counts Cisco, Amazon, Tesco, Reliance Jio, and ThoughtWorks among clients for its SaaS (software-as-a-service) product. “In today’s candidate-centric market, I’d say data-driven outbound hiring is clearly the most intelligent and scientific way to scale recruiting,” says Savita Hortikar, who heads talent acquisition in India for ThoughtWorks.

See: Your angry reactions to Donald Trump’s Facebook posts might help you get a job

Ola

Photo credit: Michael Coghlan.

Uber’s Indian rival Ola got a fresh lease of life with US$330 million from its lead investor, Japan’s SoftBank. But it was a down round as Ola was reported to have been valued at US$3.5 billion, against its valuation of US$5 billion in the last funding round in 2015. SoftBank wrote down its investment in Ola last year.

Both Uber and Ola have got hit with strikes in recent weeks. Drivers unhappy with a cutback on incentives. The ride-hailing apps as well as the leading ecommerce marketplaces Amazon and Flipkart have tried discounts and incentives to gain an upper hand in the Indian market.

See: Meru strikes while the iron is hot, even as Uber and Ola are in limbo

StayAbode

StayAbode team. Photo credit: StayAbode.

StayAbode is a co-living space provider based in Bangalore. It offers urban millennials the option to share apartments with like-minded people. Typically it offers a bed and cupboard as private space, and shared spaces like kitchen and living room. It serves the needs of those who don’t want the hassle of maintaining an apartment.

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