How Hunar.AI is using WhatsApp and AI to fix India’s frontline hiring problem
Every missed call can mean a missed hire. That’s the problem Hunar.AI is solving, by turning WhatsApp into a smart hiring assistant for India’s frontline workforce.
India's gig economy has taken flight, and so has the demand for delivery personnel for food delivery, quick commerce, and logistics companies. While frontline hiring is fast-paced, companies often struggle with slow and inefficient interview processes that can stretch for several rounds.
, a startup based in Gurugram and Bengaluru, is using AI to make large-scale hiring faster and more reliable.
The startup was founded in December 2021 by Krishna Khandelwal (CEO) and Shantanu Bhattacharyya (CTO), operating under its registered name, Bluejay WorkTech Pvt Ltd. Both co-founders previously worked at logistics optimisation startup Locus, where they often saw problems with how companies hired frontline workers.
Bhattacharyya, who holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and has a background in biophysics, structural biology, and computational immunology, moved back to India after a few years in the US. He joined Locus as chief data scientist and met Krishna Khandelwal, who was leading the business team. Their conversations often circled around recurring challenges in hiring for logistics clients, especially delivery personnel and ground workers.
“There is very little trust from the people who work on the ground,” Bhattacharyya tells YourStory. “They believe they are getting shortchanged. Meanwhile, employers don’t see the value in investing in them because they assume workers will leave quickly or lack the necessary skills."
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However, this gap between employers and workers was becoming a serious problem. Hiring for roles like delivery staff or retail salespeople now happens year-round, not just seasonally. These roles require constant recruitment to keep up with demand, and losing candidates at the wrong time can seriously affect the business. “We felt that technology could help make the process faster, more reliable, and more transparent for both sides,” Bhattacharyya says.
Hunar.AI’s tools automate almost every stage of the hiring pipeline—posting job ads, sourcing, screening, documentation, interview scheduling, and onboarding. All interactions take place over WhatsApp and mobile-friendly chat interfaces. However, the startup's flagship feature is its AI-based qualification engine. It enables companies to reach out to a wide pool of candidates, assess them based on CVs or other available data, and narrow the list down to only those most likely to qualify and join.
"If you can shrink the pool by 90% and only contact the most relevant candidates, you save both time and effort," Bhattacharyya says.
Along with screening, Hunar.AI helps companies create career pages, verify documents, send offer letters, and manage onboarding. A useful feature is its ability to quickly check identity details like Aadhaar and PAN, helping employers avoid any delays.
A major strategic decision early on was the choice to build the experience entirely on WhatsApp. Initially debated internally, it quickly became the obvious channel due to its reach, high engagement rates, and evolving API capabilities from Meta.
Hunar.AI delivers its services through WhatsApp, chosen for its wide reach, ease of use for candidates, high engagement rates, and evolving API capabilities from Meta.
"WhatsApp just has insane distribution. People open and check it far more than any app,” Bhattacharyya says. “Once we stabilised the experience, we started exploring other platforms like Facebook and Instagram too."
Hunar.AI’s tools are focused on evaluation and context. As Bhattacharyya puts it, “The tools’ strengths in handling interruptions, filtering background noise, and switching between languages smoothly.”
Additionally, the company is also testing integrations with other Meta platforms and job boards to expand its reach. According to Bhattacharyya, job boards and Facebook groups are still the most relevant for the audience, but the team is working on tools for wider outreach.
However, the startup serves 20+ B2B clients that conduct bulk hiring across sectors such as retail, logistics, and manufacturing. These include Licious, Rebel Foods, One MCG, and RVNL. Hunar.AI operates on a SaaS model, with a monthly subscription and usage-based pricing.
The platform is built on top of open-source and commercial foundational models such as LLaMA and OpenAI’s APIs, but the company has created its proprietary layers for performance, reliability, and contextual relevance. One example is its voice AI stack, which powers over 30,000 calls per day. These tools are optimised for noisy environments, low latency, and multilingual switching—key requirements for the Indian market.
"Everyone has access to the same foundational models, but what you build before and after matters. We built our evaluation layer so that every AI interaction is stored, interpreted, and used to personalise future conversations,” he explains.
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The team currently operates from offices in Bengaluru and Gurugram and has 50 employees, including a 12-member tech and product team. Hunar.AI has raised $1.6 million from investors including Titan Capital and Together Fund.
Kudos is one of Hunar.AI's biggest competitors. The company is known for building its own AI models. "It's not just about making API calls. What you do before and after matters," Bhattacharyya says.
The startup has faced several challenges. The founder recalls that one was ensuring strong AI performance without spending too much money. “It took a lot of effort to reach high accuracy, especially in India's noisy and multilingual environment,” he added.
Another challenge was hiring the right tech talent to build these tools while keeping the team small and focused.
Hunar.AI has chosen to stay focused on the domestic market for now. "We wanted to make sure this works for India first. The dynamics here are complex, from how contracts work to how outreach is done. We’ll explore other geographies later,” says Bhattacharyya.
The startup is working on new features like video assessments and better fraud checks. It also plans to explore areas beyond hiring, such as offering career guidance to workers.
Additionally, the company is also planning to increase its role in direct candidate sourcing, rather than relying solely on employers to provide leads.
(The copy was updated on the company's request.)
Edited by Kanishk Singh