The funding included $5,00,000 of debt funding from Alteria Capital, Smartstaff founder and CEO Arpit Dave told ETtech. Alteria Capital was the only new investor in the funding round.
The company, which previously raised $4.3 million in October 2021, offers solutions for recruitment, workforce management, and retention for mid-sized and large manufacturing enterprises.
Since its inception in 2021, Smartstaff has recruited, trained, and employed 11,000 workers across 50 manufacturers, helping workers collectively earn over Rs 100 crore in wages, it claimed.
“We are excited to double down on our investment in SmartStaff because of their game-changing workforce management and blue-collar sourcing platform, which is poised to disrupt the way manufacturing companies hire and manage their workers,” Sameer Brij Verma, director of Nexus Venture Partners, said.
Manufacturers working with Smartstaff have seen a 20-30% increase in output per worker and have reduced absenteeism by 30%, per a statement by Smartstaff.
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Dave told ET that about 70% of the Bengaluru-headquartered company’s business is generated from the textiles industry, about 15-20% from the warehousing and consumer sectors, and about 8-10% from the metal fabrications industry, an industry it has entered recently. Its clients include Raymonds, Cotton World, SuperDry, and Marks & Spencers.Dave added that the company will use the fresh capital to expand into new geographies away from its core south Indian markets, invest in strategic projects including entering new industries, and invest in upskilling.
The services offered by Smartstaff include payroll management, compliance, instant salary advance, loans, leave bonuses, live chat support, an emergency SOS feature, and a dedicated helpline for female workers.
The startup was founded in February 2021 by Dave, Viral Chhajer, Gnanesh Chilukuri, and Aravind Reddy. This is the second venture of the team, comprising 140 people. They sold their earlier startup Runnr to Zomato in 2018.
Blume Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners were also early backers of Runnr.
“Over 100 million manufacturing workers in India are now digitally connected via smartphones, and participate in India’s public digital stack (Aadhar, UPI, etc). Smartstaff has leveraged this to build a platform that directly addresses the massive challenges of worker productivity and attrition that plagues Indian manufacturing,” Bala Srinivasa, managing director, Arkam Ventures, said.