Kelly Services and Temp Holdings set up new fund in India for HR-tech startups
Kelly Services India, a global recruitment firm, has, in association with Temp Holdings, set up the Temp Innovation Fund, a corporate venture capital fund that will focus on the HR sector in India. The fund was initially launched by Temp Holdings in Japan, which is now accessible to all global markets. A total investment of $10 million has been made in the fund to begin with.
The joint venture entity, TS Kelly Asia Pacific, is headquartered in Singapore. Temp Holdings owns 51 percent of the expanded joint venture while Kelly Services owns the remaining 49 percent.
While speaking to YourStory, Kamal Karanth, Managing Director of Kelly Services India, said that this fund has been set up after seeing the lack of funds focusing on this segment, and it will be addressing the gap in the human resources market. He added,
“We will be looking at HR-tech startups that are in the early stages. Startups with a strong tech backbone and scalability potential will be added to our portfolio. The startups should be capable of solving a problem not just in the Indian market but globally as well.”
The fund will be investing in the range of Rs 2-3 crore per investment, and plans to invest heavily in 2017.
Comparing the Indian market with other international markets, he said the HR segment has a huge gap that needs to be addressed.
“Globally, the staffing industry is a $400 billion industry, out of which $180 billion is contributed by the US domestic market alone. The Indian HR market is a little more than $10 billion, including all technology platforms, and growing rapidly. We are looking out for startups harnessing complex algorithms, predictive analytics, patented platforms and other digital technologies that can enhance Human Resources productivity,” he added.
Overview of the HR segment
Recently, Greytip, a cloud-based HR and payroll solution, had raised Rs 35 crore in Series B funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Blume Ventures. Apart from this, the segment has witnessed acquisitions like Quikr acquiring job portal Hiree, and Microsoft acquiring Linkedin. This segment has witnessed more players in the job portal front, but not much has been done to solve the overall pain points of this sector.
