Women's career community platform SHEROES secures Rs 12cr funding in Series A round
Women-focused platform SHEROES has raised Series A funding in a round led by Lumis Partners along with The HR Fund and angel investor Rajul Garg. Raghav Bahl’s Quintillion Media, already an investor, also participated in the round.
The company in a statement said that the transaction is part of a larger commitment, out of which Rs 12 crore has been secured.
Dexter Capital was the exclusive financial advisor and Vertices Partners was the legal advisor to SHEROES for the transaction.
“SHEROES is uniquely placed to solve a hard problem and has invested in building the entire ecosystem supporting women and their aspirations. With a large mission, a fast growing organisation, and an innovator’s mindset, getting the right kind of investment support is crucial. With this capital raise, we will further strengthen our investment in technology, resources, and growing the SHEROES footprint,” said, Founder of SHEROES, Sairee Chahal.
SHEROES is a career community of women with members from over 20,000 locations. The company claims that over 12,000 companies actively use the platform. SHEROES also runs a career support helpline via phone and app and is present in major Indian cities as well as upcoming ones like Jaipur, Indore, and Pune.
Launched in 2014, SHEROES had raised Rs 5 crore in an angel round from Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur’s Quintillion Media, 500 Startups, and a group of individuals including Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Rajan Anandan, Binny Bansal, Mekin Maheshwari, Girish Mathrubhootham, Indus Khaitan, and Krishna Mehra.
Among major recent acquisitions, Tiger Global-backed Quikr acquired Bengaluru-based job portal Hiree, which will be merged with its jobs vertical QuikrJobs. The major players in this space are Naukri, Monster India, and TimesJobs. However, no player is focusing only on women-oriented jobs, something SHEROES has used to its advantage.
Conclusion
“Gender diversity is a pressing issue for India Inc and SHEROES is helping creating the right kind of linkages between women workforce and organisations. SHEROES is The HR Fund’s fifth investment and is a perfect fit for our portfolio,” said Utkarsh Joshi, CEO of The HR Fund.
The gender imbalance in the workforce is no secret and such platforms will surely fill the gap upto some extent. Apart from women’s safety, other gender issues have not really been a major focus for startups and will need more innovation and determination.