BetterPlace launches upskilling and discovery platform for gig workers

Bengaluru-based HRMS (Human Resource Management Software) platform for workforce management Betterplace has launched its platform for upskilling gig workers or part-time workers, Rocket, across six cities. 

The platform was piloted in Bengaluru and Mumbai in March 2022 and has close to 50,000 users as of date. The platform offers over 50 different courses and caters to job roles in logistics, ecommerce, retail and shop-floor, BFSI customer care as well as entry-level sales roles which require feet-on-street. 

According to Co-Founder and Group CEO of BetterPlace, Pravin Agarwala, the platform is aimed at creating a pool of 10X jobseekers than what the employer is looking for, through online training and upskilling. 

“Resource requirements are growing across sectors and job roles. We identified that everyone is tapping into the same available pool so that they don’t have to bear the cost of upskilling. The resource pool is shrinking,” Pravin Agarwala told Yourstory.

He added, “From an individual’s point of view, working as a delivery boy or a security guard, nothing has changed for them after working for five to ten years. At Rocket, they can upgrade by upskilling themselves,” he adds. 

The platform does not charge any fee to jobseekers at present, though the company might charge a subscription fee going ahead, says Pravin. 

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The Rocket platform is designed for prepping and discovery for gig workers including suggestions on jobs. Rocket is designed to mimic video streaming platforms to make it intuitive, including features such as ‘top watched’ and others. The platform claims to offer content in over 35 languages. 

The platform currently works with a handful of employers including online meat retailer, Licious.

“We work with employers and OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) to design courses as part of Rocket,” says Pravin.

He added that the platform was also being used by brands such as beauty product companies, paints companies etc to train freelancers and existing workforce on how to use their latest products. Usually done through offline classes, the process is cost-intensive and Rocket as a platform is helping these clients reach out to the workers by offering online courses for the same. 

Rocket solves the problem of identifying and training the right resource. While BetterPlace’s flagship HRMS already works with companies from candidate onboarding to offboarding, Rocket allows these companies to identify, upskill and onboard gig workers. The employers are charged a fee per person per month, based on the resources hired by them. 

Founded in 2015 as an identity verification platform for blue-collar workers by Pravin and Saurabh Tandan, BetterPlace has raised over $40 million across multiple rounds of funding since inception. The company last raised $24 million in a Series C round of funding led by Jungle Ventures and CX Partners in September, 2021. 

BetterPlace has also made four acquisitions since 2021 to strengthen its portfolio of offerings, with training platform Oust Labs, blue and grey-collar staffing and recruitment service provider OLX People, gig-work platform OkayGo and no-code workflow builder platform, ezeDox. 

Some of these acquisitions like the training platform of Oust Labs as well as OLX People and OkayGo platforms are plugged into its offering with Rocket. “Going ahead, we also plan on adding a layer of financial services and products for the job seekers to Rocket, either organically or inorganically,” added Pravin. 

In the upskilling and hiring service for blue and grey-collar workforce, BetterPlace competes with Apna Jobs which was valued at over $1 billion in September, 2021 with funding from Tiger Global and others.