[Funding alert] Blue collar workforce management platform Smartstaff raises $4.3M

Blue-collar workforce management platform Smartstaff (previously Qikwork) has raised $4.3M in funding from Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Arkam Ventures, along with Gemba Capital and some angels. 

Founded in October 2020 by ex-colleagues at Runnr – Arpit Dave, Viral Chhajer, Gnanesh Chilukuri, and Aravind Reddy, Smartstaff helps businesses hire and manage their blue collar workforce by digitising workforce management practices. The startup's goal is to enable 100 million blue collar workers in India to get access to better work by leveraging the power of technology.

Smartstaff said the funding raised will be used for further enhancing the product and building the team. 

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Arpit Dave, Co-founder and CEO, Smartstaff, said, “With more and more industrial workers getting access to smartphones, we see a huge potential in using technology to reimagine workplace processes, and unlock massive value for companies and workers alike”. 

Sameer Brij Verma, Managing Director, Nexus Venture Partners, added, “We at Nexus are very excited to partner again with Runnr’s founding team to re-imagine blue-collar recruitment and staffing for over 100 million workers in the country. Via their new-age work-force management platform, SmartStaff aims to drive game-changing efficiencies in the way manufacturing and supply chain companies source, retain, upskill, pay and incentivise their staff.’’

"Indian manufacturing is silently powered by tens of thousands of SMBs and their workforces. And yet, the ability to enhance that labor discovery, employment, productivity, and transparency is alarmingly low. The Smartstaff team is all set to change that. Their solution has already wowed some of the smaller and largest employers in the space. We will soon see the core of Indian manufacturing be powered by Smartstaff", commented Karthik Reddy, Blume Ventures.

“Over the past decade, smartphone penetration across India has triggered waves of new age platforms disrupting large markets. We see Smartstaff leading the change by digitising workplace processes for manufacturers, and enabling 100M+ blue collar manufacturing workers to use their smartphones as an instrument of productivity with information on shifts, payouts, savings, jobs, and communication,” added Bala Srinivasa, Managing Director at Arkam Ventures.

“At Smartstaff, the vision for us is to facilitate the digital transformation of the workforce management practices of India’s manufacturing and supply chain industries,” stated Viral Chhajer, Co-founder, Smartstaff.