Like most innovations, imocha also began with our sheer frustration with the existing system.
Sujit and I were exasperated with how much time we were spending on the interviews and hiring process and how cumbersome it had become. Fortunately, we saw this as an opportunity to build something that could revolutionise how the world hires.
The journey so far has been nothing short of extraordinary. We did have all the ingredients for success—we developed a product we all believed in, built a team hell bent on success, and best of all, we’ve had fun while doing it.
And of course, it didn’t hurt that we started generating revenue soon after we started.
Over the last decade, the world of skills has blossomed and tech has found footing in each and every role. A new world has emerged from this compatibility where skills lead the roles, and performance leads to achievements.
We, at imocha, can proudly say that we’ve helped organizations achieve this— during their recruitment efforts, their upskilling and reskilling efforts, during their digital transformation efforts, and have led them to the next level of progress.
Now, we’re more product fit than ever and ready to take the market by the storm. And that's why we’ve raised this round.
To tell you the truth, though, we didn’t need the money.
Then why do it at all, even though we have been profitable from the beginning?
Here are some reasons why:
- We Had to Build a Leadership Team
We on-boarded a leadership team that believed in our mission before we even got our seed funding. That kind of belief in our product was vital to our growth. This team included Head of Marketing: Sairam Krishnan, ex Freshworks and Wingify; Head of Engineering: Vishal Madan, ex Amdocs; Maharshi Upadhyaya, Director, Customer Success; and Head of Sales: Piyush Bhamare, ex CEO of Sminq.com.
Now that we have this leadership team ready, it is a matter of enabling the product and accessing the right content that will take us to our next milestone—to establish ourselves as THE digital skill assessment partner of this new world.
- We Needed Strategic Partnerships
Everyone who’s invested in us leads a +$200 million valuation firm in SaaS or HR Tech. Some of the people who put their faith in us are Girish Mathrubootham, CEO and founder of Freshworks; Anand Chandrasekaran, former director at Facebook; David Hauser, Co-founder of the Grasshopper group; Ashwin Bharath, CEO and founder of Revature; Vaibhav Domkundwar, CEO and Founder of Better Capital; and Yamini Bhat, Co-founder, Vymo.
With them onboard, we have been pushing the boundaries of imocha more than ever before.
We’ve doubled our team, working with them proactively and taking their aid contextually. We have a strategic advisory board that will guide us through this journey.
- We Had to Make imocha Future Proof
This funding takes some pressure off us to sell and allows us to focus on innovation. We intend to enhance imocha’s capabilities to tap into remote and diverse workers. We want to create a product that doesn’t just help recruit, but help organizations revolutionize the way they hire.
We want to do all this (and more) while keeping our Work Happy culture intact.
- We Have to Rise Above the Noise
We’re a mission-driven company and we’ve employed a number of technologies to achieve that mission. Our features are assisted by AI, ML, NLP, and a number of new-age technologies. With this seed round, we’ll be able to play to our strengths. Moreover, we’ll be narrowing our focus and trying to tap into the medium and large sector enterprises.
This new world is transitioning at a fast pace, and we consider skill assessment a currency in this new and changing economy. In a span of seven years, imocha has evolved from a service to a product, but what has been consistent over the years is our mission— to make hiring efficient. We will continue to chase this mission until we completely rewrite the hiring playbook.