Washington, DC (July 22, 2021) —Village Capital, with the support of Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE)and International Finance Corporation (IFC), today announced the 18 early-stage startups that were selected to take part in Future of Work India 2021, an investment-readiness program for startups that are helping young people in India find jobs, build careers, and prepare for the future of work.
A total of 18 companies were selected to participate in the program as part of two cohorts in April through August 2021. The top peer-selected company in each cohort will receive $20,000 in funding from IFC to help scale their businesses.
“According to the Future of Jobs Report 2020, 43% of businesses are set to reduce their workforce due to technology integration, 41% plan to expand their use of contractors for task-specialized work, and 34% plan to expand their workforce due to technology integration,” said Shreyansh Chandak, Manager of Partnerships and Programs, South Asia. “This grim situation needs businesses and leaders to respond in novel ways - through skilling, upskilling and reskilling of the incoming and current workforce. Village Capital is excited to support these 18 startups that are helping young people find jobs, build careers, and prepare for the future of work.”
Each startup selected for the accelerator will have the opportunity to work closely with industry experts, investors, and ecosystem partners to develop the networks they need to scale their impact.
All startups in the program will be invited to join Abaca, Village Capital’s global online network that helps entrepreneurs analyze and structure their businesses for investment. The network also matches them with the right investors and resources.
Here are the 18 startups helping Indians prepare for the future of work:
- AssessHub has built a talent assessment and predictive analytics platform that can provide customized tests for each role and level within the organization throughout the employee lifecycle of a company’s hiring, training and performance measurement.
- Board Infinity is a career exploration platform that caters to skilling and career outcome needs of students and professionals aiming for white collar jobs. They provide access to industry focussed courses and mentors, to students from tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India.
- EduGorilla Community Pvt Ltd is an app and web based vernacular test series preparation platform that focuses on state level government exams offering mock interviews, online and offline test series for its subscribers, majorly from tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
- EvueMe Selection Robot pre-screens candidates by assessing them on key competencies critical for the job, ranks them on the desired competencies using AI, and arms recruiters with multiple data points to bring high predictability and reliability to their selection decision before a human interaction.
- Extraclass is a gamified social learning network that allows young learners to collaborate and help each other in improving learning outcomes, offers free educational content and rewards them for uploading content showcasing their skills.
- GetConduct assists companies in tracking diversity data, allows employees to have a confidential discussion with a bot on matters of sexual harassment at workplace, provides byte sized content on awareness of the POSH Act and redressal assistance to internal committees (IC) of companies required to be formed under the POSH Act.
- iDreamCareer is a full-stack career and college discovery platform, available across a web app and website. The company offers need-based career guidance programs for high-school, 11-12th, and college students. iDCs programs help students obtain general career awareness, choose the right colleges and subjects, and build a personalized career trajectory through psychographic analysis and live career counselling programs.
- Iona.ai is an all-in-one conversational AI platform that helps companies in remote onboarding using a chatbox for quality hiring at speed and scale. Companies can save time and money by using this solution while onboarding employees at scale in a secure manner.
- Mentoria is a career counseling platform that offers career discovery, career assessment, and career mentorship solutions for students (classes 8th-12th), college graduates, and working professionals. With its proprietary psychometric tests, trained career counselors, and career library, it helps students identify the right career options, matching their abilities, personalities, and interests.
- MentorMind is an online platform where students and young professionals can access & work on real-time work situations through virtual internships designed in partnership with industry partners and recognized through certifications. Depending upon the performance, a student can then also be absorbed full time by a company.
- PMaps is a platform that improves hiring outcomes through quick and automated assessments for mass recruiters. It measures skill and personality through a set of candidates’ images taken by themselves. The technology can be used by companies to identify skill gaps, train their workforce and to engage the current workforce better.
- Pick My Work provides an online platform for their clients to hire, manage and track performance of on-field staff and reimburse them for their efforts based on the value created for the client. They also provide necessary training to the workers, aiding to upgrade their skills and taking the burden off the clients.
- Prepleaf Preparation is a job preparation platform focussed towards white collar job seekers. Their current focus is preparing job seekers in the field of data science and analytics with a plan to expand their scope into other fields such as marketing and consulting. Their courses are developed by industry experts and they acquire their customers through strong college networks.
- Processbee Technologies Pvt Ltd creates game based learning solutions, providing immersive onboarding and skilling games, offered as a SaaS product to businesses and universities to train their workforce and students.
- Qandle is an easy to install HR SaaS solution. It covers all the requirements across core HR, talent management, payroll and business expenses. The solution can be configured to meet every company's unique policies and processes and is easy to adapt for the employees.
- Trabaajo Software Labs seeks to create better matches between employees and employers by reducing attrition and increasing productivity. AskTrabaajo- the real-time virtual assistant empowers the HR industry by automating processes across all levels of the HR functions and enables users to perfectly manage their departments, tasks and seek new opportunities.
- Unschool.in is an online marketplace for professional education where anyone in the world can create high-quality courses for college students and early working professionals in India. It optimises alternative learning and teaching methods by merging career counselling, self-paced learning, personalised mentorship, and individualistic online courses delivered by industry experts.
- Vigour Contingent Pvt Ltd (Workflexi) is an online platform that connects skilled gig workers in IT/ITES and creative domains with recruiters and follows a milestone based pay as you go model. It aims to improve the cost efficiency of hiring and talent management for the companies, while also improving access to opportunities for the gig workers in the country.
For more information, reach out to Rustin Finkler at Village Capital (rustin.finkler@vilcap.com)
About Village Capital
Village Capital helps entrepreneurs bring big ideas from vision to scale. Our mission is to reinvent the system to back the entrepreneurs of the future. Our vision is a future where business creates equity and long-term prosperity. Since 2009, we have supported more than 1,000 early-stage entrepreneurs through our investment readiness programs. Our affiliated fund, VilCap Investments, has invested in more than 110 program graduates.
About IFC
IFC—a member of the World Bank Group—is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2020, we invested $22 billion in private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.
About ANDE
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) is a global network of organizations that propel entrepreneurship in developing economies. ANDE members provide critical financial, educational, and business support services to small and growing businesses (SGBs) based on the conviction that SGBs create jobs, stimulate long-term economic growth, and produce environmental and social benefits.
As the leading global voice of the SGB sector, ANDE believes that SGBs are a powerful, yet underleveraged tool in addressing social and environmental challenges. Since 2009, we have grown into a trusted network of nearly 300 collaborative members that operate in nearly every developing economy. ANDE grows the body of knowledge, mobilizes resources, and connects the institutions that support the small business entrepreneurs who build inclusive prosperity in the developing world. ANDE is part of the Aspen Institute, a global nonprofit organization committed to realizing a free, just, and equitable society.