Online classifieds site Quikr has acquired Hiree, an online hiring platform focused on white-collar jobs, for an undisclosed amount, the company said in a blog post today. The acquisition will help the company to strengthen its job vertical QuikrJobs and address recruitment demand for multiple job categories across various industries. The entire customer base of Hiree will now be transferred and merged with QuikrJobs, and will operate out of Quikr’s HQ in Mumbai.
Hiree.com targets job seekers on a sabbatical period, those who have already left a job and aren’t on a notice period any longer, and those who can join immediately. It rebranded from its earlier brand name myNoticePeriod.com in May last year. The company raised Rs 18 crore from IDG Ventures, in February 2015. It also previously raised over Rs 2 crore in seed funding from the same investor and other individual investors in September 2014. By February 2015, myNoticePeriod claimed to have seen over 75,000 job seekers and over 5000 signed up recruiters, including Sony, TaxiForSure, Walmart, Wipro among others.
Layoffs at Hiree: In April, Hiree had laid off 80% of its workforce, according to an Inc42 report, taking the total number of employees to just 10-15. Employees were offered a two-month pay as severance and were asked to leave in a meeting conducted by the company, added the report. In February, Hiree had fired close to 11% (10 employees) of its workforce, as per a TechStory report. At that time, the company had a total of 112 employees.
The combined business entity of QuikrJobs and Hiree claims to connect over 4 million active users to recruiters across the country. Quikr mentioned that its missed call service for online profile creation launched in October last year will benefit largely with this acquisition by making “a larger talent pool available to recruiters for entry-level, blue collar as well as white-collar lateral hires”. The company claims that over 10 lakh job seeker profiles created through its missed call service alone, in addition to profiles created via desktop and mobile.
Quikr funding: Last year, Quikr raised $40.5 million from AB Kinnevik. and had said that it would use the funds to invest in its mobile business and strengthen its hold in categories like goods, cars, real estate, jobs and services. The company’s financials upto 2014:
Quikr’s previous acquisitions
– In May, Quikr had acquired on demand beauty services provider Salosa for an undisclosed amount to expand its personal care listings under its QuikrServices offering, while entering into newer cities.
– In January, Quikr acquired CommonFloor and merged it with its real estate vertical QuikrHomes. MediaNama had confirmed the merger earlier in November.
– In December last year, Quikr acquired the real estate analytics startup Realtycompass to boost its offerings in the real estate space.
– In November 2015, Quikr acquired mobile real estate agent aggregator Indian Realty Exchange for an undisclosed amount.
– In October 2015, Quikr made a strategic investment in Genesys International‘s venture AN Virtual Tech.
