Quess Corp, which bought the rights to monster.com for most of the Asian markets three years ago, said investors Mohandas Pai and Akash Bhanshali have co-invested with it in the latest round of funding for the recruitment site.
In total, said Quess Corp, the three parties invested Rs 112.5 cr, with an option to raise the amount to Rs 137.5 cr.
The Bangalore-based group, which offers various corporate services such as employee management, recruitment, catering and so on, did not disclose how much each investor put in.
However, it did say that the investment was made at a valuation of around Rs 750 cr ($100 mln) for monster.com. Quest had acquired the monster.com business for Rs 145 cr three years ago.
Monster.com, originally an American recruitment classifieds website that entered India more than a decade ago intending to compete with naukri.com, never managed to pose a real threat to home grown naukri.com, and eventually sold out to Quess Corp.
It was in 2018 that Quess Corp acquired monster.com’s businesses in India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, UAE and Saudi Arabia, claiming that the deal would strengthen its HR services portfolio, which was primarily focused on the offline mode as of then.
Over the last few years, competitive intensity in the recruitment space has increased due to the entry of newer players such as indeed.com, as well as social media players such as LinkedIn.
The parent, Quess Corp, with over 4 lakh employees, offers services such as sales & marketing, customer care, after sales service, back office operations, manufacturing, facilities and security management, IT & mobility, besides HR.
Quess Corp said the new funds will be utilized towards product development & marketing in India, SEA and Middle East.
“This investment will help Monster.com evolve from a Job-board into a Talent Platform delivering full stack experience for both candidates and companies,” it said.
Monster.com claims to have over 60 million active users in India.
The company said monster.com has seen strong traction in the last one year.
“The company’s consistent efforts in improving platform experience has helped it achieve significant growth across key business metrics like Sales (60% growth YOY), Customer Retention (70% growth YOY) & Active User Base (170 % growth YOY) etc. Key health indicators like recruiter searches and consumption have also shown over significant improvement,” it said.
Indeed, hiring activity in the IT space — the key driver of most recruitment platforms — is at a peak at present, with most IT employees getting multiple job offers due to heavy demand from clients.
“We have an exciting product and business road map in line with our view on how hiring will evolve in the next few years,” monster.com promised.
Akash Bhanshali’s investment will be managed by Enam Holdings, one of the top investment and broking firms in India, started by Vallabh Bhanshali.
Mohandas Pai, co-founder of Infosys and one of the investors in the latest round, said the next 2 years in India will see a huge increase in available jobs due to high economic growth.
“As employers also prepare for a new decade and an employee-first mindset, the platform will help them create a differentiated experience and build deeper relationships with their teams from day one.”
It is possible that monster.com too could hit the IPO market, giving further boost to valuations.
