Connect with us

The Plunge Daily

Project Hero raises Rs 25.5 Crores in seed funding

Project Hero raises Rs 25.5 Crores in seed funding

Startups

Project Hero raises Rs 25.5 Crores in seed funding

Project Hero, a construction tech startup, building for India’s $63 billion construction labour market, announced that it has raised USD 3.2 million (INR 25.5 crore) in Seed funding led by Ankur Capital and Omidyar Network India. 

The round also saw participation from marquee angels such as Titan Capital and others. The company will use the funds to scale up its technology, onboard more talent on the platform, and expand its market presence. Previously, the company had raised $450k from Titan Capital, Anupam Mittal and Varun Alagh in July 2021.

“The Indian construction labour market is highly fragmented and fraught with multiple middlemen in between. Due to a lack of avenues, labourers rely on these middlemen to find work & manage their earnings. These workers never become a part of a formal workforce because their employment record & payroll record is not formally captured anywhere but only on pen and paper at best,” said Satya Vyas, Founder and CEO at Project Hero. ‘But with the advent of mobile phone penetration, we feel this can be changed. We also feel a product-first approach is a right way to solve these problems,” he added.




The labour supply chain in India is extremely fragmented. Over 50 million construction workers still find work through informal channels or through labour contractors. These contractors take advantage of the lack of transparency to pay lower wages and at the same time prevent workers from being able to evaluate their skillset and market worth. Further, the entire workforce at construction sites is managed using obsolete means of management which means that there are no employment records or formalization of the workforce. This eventually leads to frequent attrition and delays in projects due to a drop in productivity for the contractors.

“The trust deficit among key stakeholders in the industry leads to suboptimal outcomes for all, with workers being excluded from a ‘professional’ experience around their work and career,” said Krishnan Neelakantan, Partner, Ankur Capital. “By leveraging technology to bring transparency into working, hiring and engagement, Project Hero is building a trusted platform that can tap into a large market opportunity, ” he added.

Using the Project Hero platform, construction workers get direct access to high-paying jobs, training & access to financial products and services. The company works with contractors of various sizes and helps them recruit and manage the workforce via their product. By removing middlemen from the value chain, Project Hero is able to deliver cost & experience benefits to both sides of the marketplace.

“Aligning with our vision to improve the lives of the Next Half Billion, Project Hero formalizes the labour operations of a highly unorganized and under-protected construction sector through innovative use of technology and a bold vision,” said Badri Pillapakkam, Partner, Omidyar Network India. “In this rapidly digitizing world, Project Hero has the potential to create a significant positive impact on hundreds of thousands of workers through better working conditions, transparency, timely payments and greater utilization,” he added.

Before starting Project Hero, co-founders, Satya Vyas, Pukhraj Grewal & Raghu Chopra, all IIT Roorkee graduates, ran a general contracting company for 5+ years, which is where they experienced. Project Hero lets contractors hire and manage construction workers of various trades like barbending, shuttering, masons , painters etc in a reliable and cost-effective way.  Construction workers join Project Hero to get direct access to high-paying jobs, training and other financial products which help them lead a more dignified life.


Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

To Top
Loading...