Jobs aggregation startup OTU India raises $1 million in funding led by Dream 11’s Harsh Jain

Founded in 2021 by BITS Pilani alumnus Pratik Maheshwari and Akhilesh Kothari, OTU India is also mentored by Vishal Mehta of Infibeam Avenue Ltd, who serves on the board of the company.

The startup offers a video feature to potential employers, wherein it prepares a profile for candidates and connects them to organised employers across the country with the help of technology.

As per the company’s website, companies including ecommerce giant Amazon, hospitality firms such as Taj Hotels, Lemontree and Ramada, retailers such as Reliance Digital, Star Bazaar and D-Mart and quick service restaurants (QSR) such as McDonald’s and Domino’s Pizza among others have already started to post relevant jobs on this portal.

“Currently more than one lakh candidates have already been registered on the OTU portal and an equal number of job vacancies are available,” said Maheshwari, cofounder and chief executive of OTU India. “OTU is in talks to raise around $5 million (about Rs 37.50 crore) in pre-series A round in the next few months to meet technology, customer acquisition, and other costs.”

Maheshwari said the startup’s aim is to reach the one million-user milestone in the next two quarters since there is no structured mechanism for connecting verified low-income job seekers with potential employers.

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The startup has already partnered with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a Central government agency that works towards skill development. It is also in the process of tying up with the National Career Service (NCS), an employee registration service started by the Ministry of Labour & Employment, where currently over 15 million candidates are registered.
“We have crossed the initial hurdle of the pilot test at Rajasthan and after a significant portion of the user base obtained jobs, we are looking to roll out this service nationally,” said Kothari, cofounder of OTU India. “In the primary phase we are going to increase our presence in largely Hindi-speaking belt and subsequently we will roll out services in the entire country.”

(Illustration by Rahul Awasthi)