NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Bangalore-based Babajob Services Pvt Ltd, which runs the job portal for blue-collar workers, has raised $10 million from Australian company SEEK Ltd, it said on Tuesday. SEEK has picked a minority stake in the firm.

The company will use the funding to grow its team and brand and to develop its mobile apps. It will also improve its telephony services such as ‘Missed Calls for Jobs’ and ‘RapidHire’.

“We are excited to find a strong partner in SEEK who shares our vision of using technology to connect everyone on the planet to better jobs, especially those in emerging markets. We are honored to be their first investment in India and look forward to bringing access to better jobs to every Indian and to helping every employer reliably hire aspiring workers,” said Sean Blagsvedt, CEO and founder of Babajob.com.

Babajob was set up in 2007 by Blagsvedt, an American national who moved to India in 2004 to work on language technologies and solutions at Microsoft Research’s Bengaluru centre. He left his job after three years to set up Babajob.com and Babalife.com. While Babajob is the recruitment portal, Babalife.com is a social network where members can interact with the bottom-of-the-pyramid section of the society.