Khosla Ventures leads $8 Mn Series A round in Vahan

Vahan, jobs and livelihood platform for blue-collar workers, has raised $8 million in its Series A round led by Silicon Valley-based Khosla Ventures. Airtel, SHAKTI VC, Pioneer Fund, Spike Ventures, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Guru Gowrappan, Kevin Shannon and others have also joined the round.

According to the Bengaluru-based startup, the fresh capital will be used to ramp up its recruitment business and build new product offerings for its customers.

Founded by Madhav Krishna and Mohammed Abdoolcarim, Vahan helps blue-collar workers find jobs while helping employers find the right candidate at the right price.

Vahan has built tools, including an AI-driven bot on WhatsApp.

The startup claims to place over 7,000 blue-collar workers across 200 cities every month in gig-economy jobs. Vahan’s customers include Zomato, Uber, Flipkart, Swiggy, Rapido, Grofers, Dunzo, and Shadowfax.

This is Khosla Ventures’ fourth investment in India this year. The VC firm has earlier backed HealthifyMe, Good Health Clinic and Even.

Over the past year, the blue-collar hiring segment has been witnessing significant interest from investors. Apna had closed $82 million across two rounds this year and now is in talks to raise the third one at a billion-dollar valuation. Entrackr had exclusively reported the potential deal on September 1.