Monster.com raises Rs 137.5 cr, Quess participates in funding round

Monster.com, a Quess company, announced that it has raised Rs 137.5 crore. The funding round was led by prominent industry leaders – Akash Bhanshali (Volrado Venture Partners) and Mohandas Pai (Meridian Investments) – with participation from Quess.

Post the funding round, the company is valued at close to $100 million. The current close has been done at Rs 112.5 crore, with an option built-in to expand the round to Rs 137.5 crore.

The funds raised will be utilised towards enhanced investments on Product Development & Marketing in India, SEA and West Asia. This investment will help Monster.com evolve from a job board into a talent platform delivering a full stack experience for both candidates and companies.

Speaking about the fund raise, Sekhar Garisa, CEO – Monster.com, APAC & ME said, “We are excited about the market opportunity in talent acquisition as people become the most important currency for every business. The last year has been incredible for the company, achieving healthy growth across all metrics. We have an exciting product and business road map in line with our view on how hiring will evolve in the next few years. The participation of visionary investors with a long-term outlook is a tremendous vote of confidence in Monster’s ability and vision in building India’s premier talent market place platform.”

In 2018, Quess Corp acquired Monster.com’s businesses in India, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, the UAE and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a strategic investment to strengthen its HR services portfolio by establishing end-to-end offerings across the Employee Lifecycle Management space. Quess’ market leading presence, in turn, offered Monster the opportunity to enhance its capability by building and implementing innovative technology platforms to gain an edge over the competition.

Mohandas Pai said, “Monster.com is poised to redefine the jobs market by building tech workflows that puts the candidate at the centre of the universe of innovation and possibilities. The next two years will see a huge increase in the available jobs, thanks to high economic growth, and job seekers will find a high quality platform to plan their careers here. 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. Meridian Investments is proud to partner with Monster.com in this exciting and important vertical.”

Monster.com today has over 60 million active users in India. The business, which also has a presence in SEA and West Asia, has launched several product innovations over the last three years to improve the experience of recruiters as well as job seekers. The company’s consistent efforts in improving platform experience has helped it achieve significant growth across key business metrics like Sales (60 per cent growth YOY), Customer Retention (70 per cent growth YOY) & Active User Base (170 per cent growth YOY). Key health indicators such as recruiter searches and consumption have also shown significant improvement.

Speaking on the occasion, Ajit Isaac, Executive Chairman, Quess Corp, said, “When Quess acquired Monster for an investment of INR 145 crore, we embarked on a ‘Digital First’ journey with the objective of creating long-term value for our shareholders and clients. This investment represents the validation of progress that has been made by the team and the capital infused will accelerate the transformation towards building Monster into a category defining company.”

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