By Saumya Tewari

Backed by Europe’s internet company, Groupo Intercom, career portal Careesma.in is making inroads in a space where brands like Naukri, Monster.com hold strong ground. Launched in 2011, the portal claims to be country’s second largest portal in terms of volume of jobs.

India Digital Review caught up with Sudhanshu Arora, Co-founder, Director and Country Manager, Careesma.in to understand the uptake of the venture, key features they offer and their plans for 2013.

Telling us about the key differentiators from other players in the market, Sudhanshu says “Our strength is strong technology backbone; the company uses unique algorithms to ensure that only the most relevant, active, genuine and non-repetitive listings are visible on the portal, thus saving time and effort for both recruiters and aspirants. Also, we are the only job-portal in the country that enables applicants to track in real time the status of their application. We are also the first job portal in India that allowed users to log in using their LinkedIn and Facebook accounts, facilitating social sharing of employment related information.”

The portal, headquartered in New Delhi, claims to have over 60,000 real jobs and18000+ clients with companies like Tata Group, Reliance, Allianz, Bosch, INGVyasa, Vodafone, Parle Agro, TVS Group, Adani and Adecco. 

Refusing to disclose their user number and paid subscribers, Sudhanshu informs that company’s focus in India is to attract recruiters and aspirants to experience their product and therefore their services are free for both recruiters and candidates for now. “We will be offering paid products for recruiters going forward. As far as job aspirants are concerned, we intend to not charge them ever,” he adds.

The company is backed by European internet firm Grupo Intercom, which is also the major shareholder in the Indian venture. “However, in 2012 we invited a select group of Business Angels to participate in Series A funding round. We will next look to raise Series B to accelerate our growth and initiate monetization plans,” he further informs.

The company is aiming to get more employers on board, a multifold growth in monthly unique users as compared to 2012 and spiking the registered user base.

They are also working on to introduce mobile version of Careesma.in and loyalty programs for users. Growth wise, the company is looking to hire senior talent to scale the business apart from extending their physical presence to top recruiting cities of India.