The blue-collar workforce makes up for a big chunk of the workforce in India, and yet, they bear the brunt of the inefficient workforce management system in the country. Several firms are working hard to help blue-collar workers achieve their goals and attain a higher standard of living and working. Smartstaff is one such firm, and now, the startup has raised $4.3 million in funding from Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Arkam Ventures, Gemba Capital, and angel investors.
According to the startup, the proceeds from the funding will be used to further enhance its product and expand its team, which currently has 60 members and is experienced in Product, Tech, Marketing & Operations.
What does Smartstaff do? The blue-collar workforce management platform, founded in 2020 by Arpit Dave, Viral Chhajer, Gnanesh Chilukuri, and Aravind Reddy, digitizes workforce management practices of firms to make it easier for them to hire and manage their blue-collar workforce. Its easy-to-use mobile-based workforce management and staffing solution helps industries upgrade from legacy processes while decreasing attrition and absenteeism (which are up to 30% and 20% respectively at the shift level at the average manufacturing plant), and improves the workers’ visibility into payouts, statutory contributions, and their timesheets.
“With more and more industrial workers getting access to smartphones, we see a huge potential in using technology to reimagine workplace processes, and unlock massive value for companies and workers alike,” said Arpit Dave, Co-founder & CEO, Smartstaff.
“At Smartstaff the vision for us is to facilitate the digital transformation of the workforce management practices of India’s manufacturing and supply chain industries,” said Viral Chhajer, Co-founder, Smartstaff.
It helps companies find and recruit talent for qualified office support, accounting/finance, design and engineering, graphics/editorial/publishing, legal, and HR for short- and long-term assignments, as well as full-time staff positions. It aims to enable 100 million blue-collar workers in the country to get access to better work by leveraging technology and have over 10,000 workers on its platform by the end of the year. Currently, over 30,000 man-hours of work are tracked daily on its platform.
