Vahan, a Bengaluru-based gig employment platform, has secured $8 million in a Series A round headed by Khosla Ventures and Pioneer Fund. In addition to Airtel, Shakti VC, Spike Ventures, Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Verizon's Guru Gowrappan, and Kevin Shannon all invested in the firm in the current round. The funding will be used to expand its recruitment operations and develop new product offerings for both blue-collar and gig workers.

Vahan.ai automates the employment of blue-collar workers in industries such as retail, hospitality, healthcare, and financial services. Zomato, Flipkart, Shadowfax, Dunzo, and Swiggy are just a few of its clientele. Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, and Pioneer Fund had previously invested an unknown amount in the firm in a seed round.

Vahan connects skilled as well as unskilled workforce to jobs through a WhatsApp chat bot, which also includes a verification process. The company claims to have served over 300 Mn candidates providing 100K placements with an average monthly rate of 7000+ blue collar workers across 200 cities. Vahan has also partnered with Airtel to run hiring campaigns across a subscriber base of 300 Mn people.

Over 450 million people work in the blue collar jobs sector, which includes jobs such as drivers, security guards, on-demand services, and more. Only 2% of this sector is organised, with less than 1% having access to official banking services in the country and fewer than 5% receiving any kind of training. As the gig economy grows in India, Google has responded by launching its entry-level job search tool Kormo Jobs in the country.

Last year, the global IT giant said that it would launch its entry-level job search app Kormo Jobs in India, aimed at temporary workers, gig economy workers, and businesses with a strong workforce demand.

Currently, startups such as Apna — which raised $570 million in a Series B round led by CX Partners and Jungle Ventures in June 2021, Betterplace — which raised $24 million in a Series C round led by CX Partners and Jungle Ventures, Quickr, OLX jobs, and Aasaan jobs, among others — dominate the market for helping blue-collar workers find work. Zomato, Swiggy, Ola, Uber, and Urban Company are among the top companies that hire blue-collar or gig workers.