Work automation platform Squad raises $2.1M from Indian, Valley-based investors

San Francisco and New Delhi-based enterprise startup Squad (earlier known as SquadRun) has raised $2.1 million from India and Valley-based investors Blume Ventures, Contrarian Capital, 91springboard, Emergent Ventures, Abstract Ventures, Anthill Ventures, and Axilor Ventures.

The round also saw the participation from angel investors, Gokul Rajaram, Product Engineering Lead at Square, and Shamik Sharma, Senior Technology Advisor at Myntra.

Squad will use the funds to scale its platform by expanding the technology, product, and data teams in India and the sales team in the US. The platform automates business processes for enterprises by combining human intelligence and artificial intelligence, helping businesses scale with unprecedented speed, accuracy, flexibility, and cost reductions.

The startups in a statement said that their client list includes Uber, Sephora, Tata Group, Flipkart Group, Rocket Internet Group, Teespring, and other data-intensive businesses.

“Over the last 1.5 years, we have achieved product-market fit and turned into a profitable SaaS business. However, we wanted to invest ahead of revenue to scale the platform and get strategic investors on board,” said Apurv Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of Squad.

Squad uses a workflow engine that breaks down business processes in an efficient manner. It manages its own proprietary workforce of independent contractors who are skilled and ‘matched’ for specific tasks. On top of this, at the nodal level of each workflow, Squad leverages ‘human-in-the-loop’ machine learning to automate parts of the process to bring in efficiency.

Squad so far has claimed to have connected more than 75,000 people across India, Philippines, Malaysia, Uganda, and Kenya to work opportunities through internet-enabled smart devices. The user base typically includes college students, young professionals, and ‘stay-at- home’ mothers.

"We invested in Squad because they have made machine learning practical and powerful for enterprise operations. By efficiently blending human and machine tasks, it is a disruptive platform in the $300 billion business process outsourcing industry," said Karthik Reddy, Managing Partner at Blume Ventures.

Website: Squad