Human resource technology company, Ekrut on Tuesday announced that it has raised an undisclosed seed investment from East Ventures, an Indonesia-based early stage VC which has recently opened its fifth fund for Southeast Asian startups.
With the latest proceeds, the Jakarta-based HR firm will continue to expand its business, as the company announced that, “Ekrut has managed a strong revenue growth at 100 percent month-on-month and will aim to disrupt the headhunting industry in the region.”
Launched in September 2016 by Steven Suliawan, Ardo Gozal, and Anthony Kusuma, Ekrut is a curated marketplace which facilitates the headhunting process between employers and qualified talent.
Before establishing Ekrut, the founders – Suliawan was an entrepreneur in residence at East Ventures, who used to run a loyalty-programme startup, Gozal was the owner of a toy marketplace startup and a headhunter at Monroe Consulting, while Kusuma previously worked in digital marketing and product development for various companies and startups, he also had experiences conducting some headhunting process with previous employers.
It is based on these past experiences that the three first saw the need for a platform like Ekrut. That is a platform that automates headhunting processes, beginning from making search requests, searching potential candidates, delivering talent profiles, and setting interviews, eliminating back and forth email with delayed responses.
Besides, Ekrut allows employers to get high caliber talent during their hiring process. With the aid of technology, Ekrut’s platform is expected to make the whole process of headhunting shorter and quicker.
“Traditionally, in headhunting, the whole process until an offer is sent takes about eight weeks. Using the right technology and marketplace model, offer letter delivery can be reduced to about four weeks,” said Suliawan, the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Ekrut.
With a 17-member team, Ekrut services more than 30 technology-based companies including Tokopedia, Go-Jek, and Orami. Within five months, they have curated more than 1000 talents in their database and direct network.
While Indonesia’s digital boom has offered plenty of opportunities for investors, the investors or employers still face various challenges in getting the right talent.
“There are tons of engineers in Indonesia, but the real good ones are scarce. This leads to the high competition for the skilled engineers. This is why we curate our talent pool in Ekrut, to ease the pain of our client in finding skilled candidates,” said Ardo Gozal, the COO and co-founder of Ekrut.
By Vivian Foo, Unicorn Media
Leave a Reply