[Funding alert] Human resource tech startup HONO raises $5M in Series A led by Aakash Chaudhry

Human resource tech startup HONO on Wednesday raised $5 million in Series A funding round led by Aakash Chaudhry, Managing Director, Aakash+BYJU’s.

Chaudhry has made a personal investment of $4 million, which is his first outside of the education sector. The startup has raised the remaining capital from other individual investors including Hemant Sultania, Amit Khanna of Amaya Ventures, and Harsh Gupta of Udayat Group.

With this investment, Chaudhry will join the Board of Directors of the company and will be actively involved in guiding business operations.

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Speaking about his reasons for investing in HONO, Aakash said,

“HONO’s emphasis on technology, particularly AI to address, simplify and humanise end-to-end HR processes being a single source of truth and its ability to transform HR into a productivity driver is something we believe in. We expect HONO’s growth curve to show a much steeper rise hereon. Besides, we value the strong and constructive relationship with HONO, developed over years of association with them as a client. We believe in working with brands that are committed to revolutionising the industry. And HONO’s vision, its client centricity and its high-end solutions show that promise.”

According to the official statement, HONO is looking to leverage the fresh corpus of funds to expand its operations across India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, increasing its market footprint and strengthening its product offering.

With over 300+ clients including Indigo Airlines, Spencer’s Retail, Kanmo Group, Dainik Bhaskar, Al Fardan Group, NBC Bearings, HDFC Bank, Medicover, Aakash+BYJU’S already on its client list, and over one million employees on its AI-backed platform, HONO has achieved remarkable growth of 2X during FY22 They now intend scaling the business and their sales vertical, and plan to double their client numbers, aiming at supporting five million people on the HONO platform in the current FY23.

“Having Aakash Chaudhry and our new group of investors in the fold, makes the HONO journey even more exciting. Their presence and this strategic investment not only establishes our investors’ faith in the business, but also reinstates our belief and the belief of the market in the direction HONO is evolving. We have, for years, been advocating that future-readiness of HR or organization lies in their use of data towards better productivity and happier people. And for that to happen they need to have a single-source-of-truth backed by truly smart systems. With this new impetus, we will be able to take this farther and do it globally, at scale,” added Mukul Jain, Founder & CEO HONO.