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    Growth-stage startups set to create about 100,000 white-collar jobs in 2021

    Synopsis

    The estimate is based on the recruitments done by these companies till the end of August and their hiring plans for the rest of the year.

    HiringETtech
    Illustration: Rahul Awasthi
    Growth-stage Indian startups, which raised Series A to E and late-stage capital in 2020, are set to create about 100,000 white-collar jobs on a net basis this year, according to data put together for ET by specialist staffing company Xpheno.
    The estimate is based on the recruitments done by these companies till the end of August and their hiring plans for the rest of the year.

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    This cohort of 243 companies added nearly 55,000 new white-collar jobs during the first eight months of 2021, compared with 30,000 net additions for the whole of 2020. For the 20-month period since January 2020, these companies collectively registered growth of more than 80% in their headcount.

    These companies are also estimated to generate another 250,000-300,000 indirect jobs (blue and grey collar) this year, with the arrival of the festive season and continuing capital flow boosting business activities.

    “The job creation potential of the high action industry sectors has put the collective headcounts of these growth-stage companies on a trajectory to cross 200,000-mark by the year end,” said Anil Ethanur, cofounder, Xpheno. Together these companies employed around 170,000 people at the end of August.

    The startup investments scenario has been on a high in 2021, with the disclosed value of Series A to Series E deals and late-stage funding so far this year already doubling in comparison to that in the whole of 2020. The year-to-date deal count in this growth series stands at 250 with a total value of $13.3 billion.

    Out of the 243 companies that received growth stage funding in 2020, 85 have got more rounds of investments in 2021 and are deploying capital for further expansion.

    “Talent is gravitating towards the digital economy. Not just tech talent, but people from adjacent industries are also attracted to these growth stage startups,” said Pranav Pai, managing partner, 3one4 Capital. “Our portfolio companies have hired across functions such as marketing, HR, software development, finance and operations.”

    The top five industries by net job creation are edtech, fintech, ecommerce, logistics, and hardware & platform-based technology.

    With nearly 15,000 net additions till date in 2021, the edtech sector with the likes of Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu and Toppr accounted for the highest number of job creation.

    Vedantu plans to recruit around 1,000 individuals from across the country and top engineering colleges, said Babu Vittal, its head of HR. “We are looking for candidates to build and strengthen our platform teams and go-to-market functions like analytics, sales, strategy, finance, marketing, engineering, product and design.”

    PhonePe plans to grow to 2,800 employees by year end from 2,400, HR head Manmeet Sandhu said. “With the markets opening up and the rapid expansion of our business, we need to continue to hire across functions.”

    Some like newly turned unicorn Zetwerk Manufacturing is focussing on ramping up their leadership pipeline while also hiring domain experts. “We have added 210 members in the past eight months … We aim to add another 100 in the next two-three months," Zetwerk cofounder Amrit Acharya said.

    Mobile ecommerce company Bikayi, which recently raised $10.8 million in Series A funding, will expand its team by ten-fold by the end of the fiscal year, said cofounder Sonakshi Nathani.

    “Our funding announcement not just helped us get access to top talent but a bigger pool,” said Ravi Maithani, head of people and culture at Tide (India), which has seen a 95% surge in the volume of applications after the announcement of Series C funding.
    The Economic Times

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