CANBERRA: Babajob.com, a marketplace for aspiring workers, has secured a $10 million minority investment from SEEK Limited (ASX: SEK). SEEK and its affiliate companies are the largest global online employment marketplace, available to approximately 2.6 billion people across Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia, China, Brazil, Mexico, Bangladesh and Africa.
SEEK’s funding will be used to grow Babajob’s team and brand, further develop its mobile apps, and improve its telephony services such as ‘Missed Calls for Jobs’ and ‘RapidHire’ in order to fulfill Babajob’s mission of connecting all Indians to better jobs.
This is the second round of venture funding for Babajob after a Series A round led by GrayGhost Ventures and Khosla Impact in 2012 and a USAID-DIV Award in 2013.
“We are excited to find a strong partner in SEEK, who shares our vision of using technology to connect everyone on the planet to better jobs, especially those in emerging markets.
We are honored to be their first investment in India and look forward to bringing access to better jobs to every Indian and to helping every employer reliably hire aspiring workers.” says Mr. Sean Blagsvedt, the CEO and Founder of Babajob.com.
“Babajob is an exciting opportunity for us. We’ve been very impressed with the capabilities of the management team, and we look forward to assisting them achieve their goal of helping connect more aspiring Indians to jobs,” says SEEK International Corporate Development Director, Ronnie Fink.
Babajob is India’s first web and mobile start-up dedicated to bringing better job opportunities to aspiring workers (e.g. delivery staff, office helpers, drivers, cooks, maids, security guards, etc.), by appropriately connecting the right employers and job seekers.
With innovative services like Missed Call for Jobs (through which anyone in India can register their job profile with a free call and in a local language), mobile apps and websites, Babajob allows all job seekers to access better livelihood opportunities.
Through employer solutions like RapidHire, Babajob drives inbound phone calls from screened candidates to employers in minutes, drastically reducing the inefficiencies of hiring in the informal sector. With over 2.5 million listed job openings and 3 million job seekers, Babajob is India’s largest aspiring labor marketplace.
