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They make us sleep in peace by remaining awake themselves at the borders; in peacetime, they defend our lives in calamity-hit areas as in Srinagar (2014) and Chennai (2015). But these soldiers, after they retire, are also increasingly turning into entrepreneurs, providing another kind of security to many: in jobs.
Meet Major Prashant Rai, Founder and CEO, Onetimejobs.com, a Bengaluru-based resources aggregator providing personalized services for various everyday needs. The company the 38-year-old, decorated infantryman of the 18{+t}{+h} Battalion of Punjab Regiment set up in September 2015, offers services including civil engineering works, one-time security, event guarding services, fire/security audits, legal services, home/office automation, event organization, background verification etc.
Job opportunities
The portal, also facilitating interaction with personnel equipped to handle electrical, plumbing, home cleaning, and carpentry, plans to expand its footprint from five major cities — Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Gurgaon and Mumbai — to some 25 cities by the end of 2016, and a hundred cities in three years to create 2,000 job opportunities, Rai, whose educational background was humanities rather than science or engineering, told BusinessLine. The firm also has a civil engineer as a director.
Onetimejobs.com has received Rs. 1.10 crore as seed-funding and is expecting to raise $ 10 million (Rs. 67 crore) as Series A funding by March 2016, for which the firm is in talks, he said. “We may also tie up with the Union Ministry of Skill Development for scaling up our services to 100 cities.”
Skill development
Rai said he is also creating a “fauzi network” to rope in 500 ex-servicemen to join in and set up two polytechnics for promoting skill development for them.
Onetimejobs.com, he said, aimed to reduce the time spent on running errands or finding the right resources for routine odd jobs. In three months, it has created a platform for over 5,200 service providers to connect with the website’s registered users.
The company is targeting to become a Rs. 1,000 crore venture by bringing in 100,000 service providers over the next three years. To achieve this, it will seek strategic tie-ups and associations with Venture Capitalists, NSDC Ministry, Security Skill Development Council of India.
Another ex-serviceman, Major G R Naga Bhushan, Chairman and Managing Director of the Rs. 10 crore Impact Solutions Group, is a recognized name in corporate training sector. He retired in 1995 and worked with banks for their security concerns before launching Impact Solutions in 2002. Having networked with over 800 people to deliver the services like security, he plans to expand beyond the company’s current area comprising Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Captain Marudai, who set up the security provider Alert Commandos, boasts of 4,000 staffers, including 500 women. “We also provide manpower to Indian Coast Guard and train security men at Bengaluru.” His firm now plans to source and train staffers belonging to the north-eastern states.
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