Outspark wants to put job seekers back in control
With AI-powered resumes, interview prep, and personal branding tools, the Gurugram startup is reimagining career growth for India’s mid-career professionals.
For mid-career professionals, finding the right opportunity often feels like a second full-time job. Updating resumes, tweaking LinkedIn profiles, and tracking the right openings can quickly become overwhelming, especially when technology has made hiring faster and more data-driven.
This gap between companies armed with digital tools and job seekers struggling to keep pace is what Outspark hopes to fill.
Founded in 2024 by Kumar Apurva, Outspark is building a “career operating system” that helps professionals with everything from personalised resumes to LinkedIn branding and job-hunting through AI.
“Job seeking is no longer about just a resume or a LinkedIn profile,” Apurva says. “Since companies use so much technology, job seekers also need smarter tools to keep up.”
After starting his career at The Times of India Group, Apurva joined job portal Naukri when it was still in its early stages. “I’ve worked in three businesses there, moved Naukri, 99acres, and Jeevansathi from desktop to mobile, and even launched a new vertical,” he recalls.
Apurva’s entrepreneurial journey took off with Taskbucks, which the Times Group acquired for $15 million. He later co-founded with Shalini Tewari, launching the gaming product Qureka in 2019. While Tewari continues to run Qureka, Apurva shifted focus about 18 months ago to build Outspark as a standalone business.
Gurugram-based Outspark was incubated in mid-2023, when Apurva saw AI’s potential to change how people look for jobs.
“There was never going to be a bigger opportunity to build companies,” he says, adding that his experience in recruitment and the gaps he saw in a market where Naukri held 90–95% share showed him how AI could finally give job seekers new opportunities.
What Outspark offers
Outspark offers resume optimisation, LinkedIn makeovers, AI-driven branding, and soon, a personalised job agent. “There is no unified career platform for mid-career professionals,” Apurva says. The platform creates hyper-personalised resumes and profiles, with each version tailored to the specific role. “A product manager CV for Airtel has to look very different from one for Flipkart,” he says.
Outspark also has an AI-based interview prep tool that simulates both HR and functional rounds. The system asks questions based on a user’s profile, adapts to their answers, and then gives a detailed report on strengths and weak areas, like communication or subject knowledge.
“It’s live and some users already use it,” Apurva says. “But we’re still refining it, and in the next few months it will be much stronger.”
Revenue and pricing
Outspark operates out of Gurugram, with around 150 employees. It follows a B2C model, earning revenue directly from users. The model begins with free tools like resume audits, followed by paid services. Prices range from Rs 199 for a LinkedIn profile review to Rs 15,999 for a “Career Boost Combo” that includes multiple resumes, an expert-crafted profile, six months of LinkedIn Copilot access, and job alerts.
Outspark is backed by Times Internet, which invested through Cool Boots. The group has raised about Rs 115 crore from the Times of India Group across three rounds. “The first rounds we invested in the gaming venture Qureka, and the last two were dedicated to building Outspark,” he says.
The startup is at an ARR of around Rs 30 crore right now, and has reported around Rs 5 crore revenue in FY25. Outspark currently has over two lakh paid users and has completed 1.3 million resumes and LinkedIn reviews.
Competition and differentiation
The career-tech market has been led by portals like Naukri, which earn most of their revenue from companies. “Job seekers are not a priority for them,” Apurva says. Outspark takes the opposite route, focusing on individuals while also building a live AI-powered talent database.
Apurva believes that AI adoption is still a challenge, but feels the pace is faster than any technology before. “Compared to mobile or the internet, AI is being adopted much quicker,” he says. “In India, the trickle-down is slower, but the landscape will look completely different in two years.”
Looking ahead
According to the IMARC report, India's HR technology market was valued at approximately $1,120 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $2,300 million by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.88%.
“We’re aiming for Rs 500 crore of this market in the next three years,” he says.
Outspark is working towards launching a personalised job AI agent, which Apurva describes as “an industry first”. Unlike traditional job alerts that batch-process candidates, the agent will actively scour the web for roles tailored to an individual’s aspirations. This is scheduled to be launched next month.
Outspark is also working on GitHub and Twitter integrations to boost visibility for tech professionals and personal branding. “We’re planning to launch the GitHub feature by this December, but Twitter might take six months to launch,” Apurva says. The team is also experimenting with AI-generated avatars that can represent users online and interact on their behalf.
“Job seekers are often treated as data points,” Apurva says. “We want to give them an ecosystem with better tools.”