Bengaluru-based blue-collar recruitment platform Vahan.ai has successfully raised $10 million in its Series B funding round, led by Khosla Ventures. Other notable participants in this round include Y Combinator, US-based VC firm Gaingels, and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma. This new investment is set to accelerate Vahan’s mission to revolutionize the blue-collar recruitment space in India.
The company had previously raised $8 million in a Series A round in September 2021, also led by Khosla Ventures. Vahan’s growth trajectory received a significant boost when it joined Airtel’s Startup Accelerator Program in 2019, which saw the telecom giant acquiring an 8.82% stake in the company.
With the newly raised funds, Vahan plans to enhance its AI recruitment technology to support interviews in eight major Indian languages. Currently, its AI recruiter is proficient in English and Hindi. This language expansion aims to make the platform more accessible across India’s diverse workforce. Additionally, Vahan intends to extend its services to sectors such as manufacturing and retail, tapping into new avenues for blue-collar job recruitment.
Since its inception in 2016, Vahan has built an impressive track record, recruiting over 500,000 workers in more than 480 cities. The platform has partnered with leading companies like Zomato, Swiggy, Flipkart, Zepto, Blinkit, Amazon, Rapido, and Uber. Vahan’s AI-driven approach has been pivotal in reducing recruitment costs and turnaround times, with the platform now onboarding over 25,000 recruits each month.
Financially, Vahan reported an operating revenue of Rs 29.7 crore for the fiscal year ending March 2023, alongside a loss of Rs 17.71 crore. While the company has yet to release its annual report for FY24, it projects a twofold growth in FY25, signaling a strong future outlook.
In the competitive landscape of blue-collar recruitment, Vahan initially faced challenges from players like Baba Jobs and Aasaan Jobs. However, both competitors struggled to scale and were eventually merged with Quikr and OLX in 2017 and 2019, respectively. Today, Vahan’s major competitor is Tiger Global-backed Apna, which achieved unicorn status in 2021 following the pandemic-induced demand for blue-collar workforce platforms.
With its latest funding and strategic expansion plans, Vahan is poised to further cement its position in the blue-collar recruitment market, leveraging advanced AI technology to bridge the employment gap for millions of workers across India.
