Background verification firm BetterPlace has been joined by Lalitesh Katragadda, former Country Manager (Products) for Google in India, as its executive board member and an investor. The amount invested is undisclosed. Prior to BetterPlace Katragadda was at Google for nearly 12 years where he helped found Google Map Maker. He quit Google in March last year. Katragadda was a part of the team that set up Google’s operations in India. He also helped with Google Transliteration, Android for India and Indic Handwriting. According to his TED profile, he had joined Google in 2002 after his robotics startup had been acquired by the company. He has a PHD in Robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. Other than this, he currently serves as an advisor to the Central and Andhra Pradesh governments on various projects related to redesigning fibre grids to make Internet availability cheaper and faster. As of now, BetterPlace offers verification and security checks with four products called Hire Safe, Partner Safe, Train Safe and Live Safe. Hire Safe is targeted at employers for whom it conducts background checks on potential employees. Partner Safe is to do a background check on a person before entering into partnerships like a formal agreement or marriage. Train Safe is an online and offline training system that focuses on the security of women and children, while Live Safe is for other home based security solutions. Commonfloor tie up: Last month, CommonFloor tied up with BetterPlace to provide background verification services to apartment associations for apartment staff, tenants and domestic help verification,…
