The KareerMatrix mantra: Catch ’em young, make them employable
The KareerMatrix Assessment Test (KAT) is the CAT exam with a K, and is for employability, not business management.
The first KAT was conducted on campus on November 5, 2014, by KareerMatrix, which was launched in October that year. It has so far assessed final-year candidates in more than 30 campuses/universities, on pilot run as well as paid basis.
After assessing people on behavioural, logical, analytical as well as other domain/technological grounds, it found that about 47% of university engineering graduates are not employable. And that is precisely why Tarun Tyagi started KareerMatrix, a talent analytics platform which uses generic assessment to create a “standardized system” for employability that can be accepted, first nationally, then globally.
Tarun’s motto is ‘catch them young’: engage candidates in building their reputation or branding in the first year of graduation or post-graduation itself, by assessing skills and knowing where they stand locally and globally. And to solve the one common problem for talent hunters, “taking the right candidate on board with minimum effort, time and cost involved”.
Interested candidates can take the KAT, which is free. They will then obtain a competitive score and get shortlisted by employer based on performance. KareerMatrix claims to be the “one-stop solution for recruitment” for the employer,.
The KAT
The test is designed to serve the need of employers for fresh candidates. First developed for engineering, management and call centre recruitment market, KareerMatrix is planning to expand its territory to banking, finance and the science recruitment market. Employers enrolled for the KAT exam are eligible to shortlist KAT aspirants.
“From this year, we look forward to engaging the candidate, or university, from the first year and getting them assessed, so that they can identify and fill in the gaps before reaching their final year. Also, the campus/candidate can compare how they are performing by generating the analytics and showcasing their talent on this open platform within their network or to the employer subscribed to KareerMatrix,” says Tarun, the CEO.
So, an individual can showcase himself/herself to anyone on the KareerMatrix platform, based on data; the recruiter can brand himself based on the type of talent he is connected to; and campuses can showcase talent by sharing analytics (for instance, they can portray the algorithmic ability skill of different batches.), assess the quality of their education and put in place improvement programs.
To Tarun, the idea of KareerMatrix came in response to the lack of data-driven hiring solutions that he found in the headhunting industry. Also he found a lack of talent predictability based on profile attributes, and no direct gateway like LinkedIn where talent hunters can connect to the right authenticated talent, and little reachability to right talent in remote areas.
Tarun is upbeat about the kind of response his venture has generated, both among corporates (Global Logic, Sopra, Evalueserve) as well as campus/university clients (ManavRachna International University, Ansal Institute of Technology in Gurgaon).
Hunting talent
The talent hunt industry consists of pre-hired talent assessment, that will be a $2.5 billion market by 2020 globally, with 20% growth annually, and the open community platform for networking with data sciences and analytics, of which KareerMatrix is a part. The typical ratio of passing employer’s employability criterion is 10 out of 200.
“There is a need for data-driven hiring which gives talent predictability analytics for everyone to recruiters,” says Tarun.
Right now, he explains, there are millions of profiles for one requirement and shortlisting the right one is a tough task. Organizing walk-ins and job fairs in hopes of meet the requirements is also a poor solution. In such a scenario, KareerMatrix provides one-click availability of filtered, authenticated and assessed talent.
“KareerMatrix is growing well and we are looking forward to disrupting the market in the coming months. We are hiring people in sales to increase our revenue and start other modules, to build synergy,” says the CEO.
When asked about competition from other companies in the sector, he adds: “Yes, there are other companies in authenticated and assessed talent, and they are doing well, though they have resolved the problem poorly.”
Tarun lists three startups in the sector which, he says, are scaling slow for lack of data science techniques and user engagement, and because they are covering only a chunk of the industry.
Business model & the cash
Tarun explains the business models: B2B: KareerMatrix to corporates; B2B2C: KareerMatrix to campus/universities to candidates; and B2C: KareerMatrix to the candidates (the best way to make the product go viral while maintaining the authenticity/credibility of KAT exam score). So far, the startup has generated revenue of Rs 1.8 million.
MatrixPartners Mumbai is interested in investing in the company, whichwasseed-fundedby Sunil Singh, a Silicon Valley investor.
Sunil is on the board of KareerMatrix, providing mentorship as well as participating in sessions for shaping the product so as for it to address current market needs.
“We initially invested Rs 5 lakh to launch the platform. The seed-fund amount will be spent on reaching out to customers in different geographies and promoting the services via digital marketing,” says Tarun.
