Mumbai-based startup Aasaanjobs is an online marketplace for blue-collar, entry-level jobs

Job searches had almost completely shifted online even before the whole startups era took center stage. Today, there are many giants and also entry-level startups working at making job-search easy. Aasaanjobs, a Mumbai-based startup is doing the same, but what differentiates it from others is its online marketplace catering to blue-collar and entry-level jobs aspirants. The company has a two-way matchmaking algorithm that filters through its database to only connect candidates whose profiles and job expectations meet client requirements, co-founder Dinesh Goel tells us. Dinesh Goel is a chemical engineer from IIT-Bombay, who started working with a multinational bank after he graduated in 2012. In November 2014, he along with Kunal Jadhav and Gaurav Toshniwal built Aasaanjobs. Jadhav is proficient in Electronic Trading, Algorithm Optimization, Process Simulation, Statistical Modelling, Trading Strategies, Fluid Dynamics and Mathematical Modelling, while Toshniwal has built Wireddin interactive in the past, a mobile based app to help SMEs. Aasaanjobs has a multilingual website (and plans to add more regional languages for easy access) to reach out to people with diverse backgrounds, an Android app and also a WAP website. It is currently a team of 150 people across Mumbai, Delhi and Pune . It has catered to 2.5 – 3 lakh job seekers in less than two years. Jadhav tells us that the business model revolves around interviews, rather than candidate data or closures. This way employers paying for valid interviews will save a lot of money which they would otherwise spend on an in-house team, irrelevant candidate information or postpaid model. “Employers purchase interview credits, wherein they pay a credit only for a valid interview - where the candidate matches the skill requirements according to the job posting. Manpower agencies get incentivised based on the number of relevant candidates they send, a fixed percentage of the money transacted per interview,” explains Goel. In December 2014, Aasaanjobs raised a seed round of $1.5 million (led by Inventus Capital and IDG) and December 2015 it raised $5 million in the Series A round (led by Inventus Capital, IDG and Aspada Advisors). Aasaanjobs has already extended its footprint to Pune and Delhi, and over the course of the next two years it is planning to expand to Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.