Global talent management platform foundit expects to break even by the end of the current fiscal. Sekhar Garisa, CEO, foundit, talks to Akanksha Nagar about the kind of effect technology has had on the entire process of hiring and how its newly launched AI-backed recruitment solutions will increase its wallet share in the market. Edited excerpts:
How do you see the hiring landscape changing in 2024?
How has AI impacted the recruitment process? Do you see AI relegating the HR department redundant anytime soon?
I don’t believe that AI will replace the recruiter or the HR department. It will replace some parts of the process, but do I see a completely tech-driven process end to end? I do not think so because a lot of it is also about cultural fit. The most common challenge is that today the recruiter spends very little time with the candidate on the topics that matter and spends a lot of time in transactional activities such as searching for the candidate, reaching out to them, and scheduling meetings, which consume 80% of the recruiter’s time while they only spend 20% of their time engaging in a real conversation with the candidate about the opportunity, or about the kind of company culture. What Generative AI and automation will do is flip that ratio — 80% of the transactional time will go down to 20% with the use of technology. Technology will contribute to improving the quality of recruitment and will help recruiters find the best talent.
Having said that, AI will have some ethical concerns, the major pitfall is that it perpetuates any biases that exist because ultimately, it’s about looking into the past and trying to help by extrapolating into the future. There are also aspects around data privacy because by using AI we can have access to candidate information which is otherwise not given by the candidates.
Can you tell us about some of the AI-backed tech tools that are in use today and that help improve recruiter productivity?
The next-gen recruitment solution that includes AI-driven outreach — Super Profiles to offer recruiters comprehensive and validated candidate information, along with an industry-first feature Smart Insights — bring about an 80% improvement in recruiter productivity and a 4.5X reduction in recruitment costs. We’re going after agility and efficiency for recruiters. AI is organically present behind every single feature of the product. Since we built an entirely new product, this gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how we use the best of the latest technology.
We believe that the product should get as many resources as it needs and technology is the real multiplier, so there is a no-holds-barred investment. We raised $20 million in 2022, have very strong revenues also, and are not only consuming from the investment money. This fiscal itself, we should be generating close to `180 crore-`190 crore of cash from the business. On top of that, we are investing from the money that we’ve raised— a significant portion of it goes towards product development and putting the right team together.
foundit has grown at a CAGR of 50% over the past two years. What do you plan to do to continue on the same trajectory?
At present, the platform has a customer base of 90 million across geographies it directly operates in — India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. It has candidates from about 18 countries, the bulk of which is from India, given the sheer talent base. We remain focused in these markets because we are just scratching the surface and have a lot of opportunities to go after. Overall, about 65% of business comes from India, and 35% comes from international markets.
We rely on technology and data science to drive engagement and connections. While the company is predominantly digital-first (in terms of marketing) in many places, we do a bit of offline as well. Other than spending on channels such as Google, YouTube, and influencer marketing, we spend a lot of resources engaging with candidates with contextual marketing. Additionally, we provide value-added services to both recruiters and candidates via content-based marketing to help them upskill themselves while preparing for interviews. In 2024, we also would be looking at a large-scale branding campaign.
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