Matrix Partners India leads investment in GrownOut

Delhi, India '“ October 08th, 2014: Matrix Partners India today announced that it has invested in the first institutional round of funding for GrownOut, a referral hiring solution that enables companies to leverage their employees' professional network. GrownOut will use the funds for deepening its analytics expertise, product development and growing its business.

GrownOut was founded by Sumit Gupta, a Computer Science graduate from Indraprastha University, Delhi and Harsimran Walia, a graduate from IIT Delhi. After graduation, Sumit worked at some startups in the training & education space, while Harsimran worked at Oracle followed by McAfee. GrownOut has been deployed at several leading companies including Quikr, Ola, Appiterate, Stayzilla and Winshuttle amongst others.

"We are building the next generation referral hiring platform to make recruiting more efficient and cost-effective. Despite incredible innovations in technology in the last decade, recruiting still remains a fundamental challenge in the industry and an unsolved problem. We believe there is a disruptive market opportunity which can change old methods and make hiring a painless process. Our partnership with Matrix Partners will provide us the necessary support to realize our vision.' said Sumit Gupta, co-founder and CEO of GrownOut.

"The recruitment market in India is large and has traditionally been served by staffing agencies, job-boards and career sites. However, HR heads of companies still struggle with a barrage of unsuitable resumes, long recruitment cycles and candidates that are a poor-fit with company culture. We believe there are several opportunities to solve the hiring needs of Indian SMBs and Matrix Partners India will make multiple investments in this space. Referral hiring - the holy grail of recruitment results in shorter hiring cycles, lower hiring costs and higher employee retention. We share Sumit and Harsimran's vision to deliver a truly world-class solution for referral hiring to Indian SMBs.' said Tarun Davda, Director, Matrix India.

"During my first interaction with Sumit and Harsimran, I was highly impressed with their exciting product insights for a market segment where disruptive innovation is long overdue. GrownOut's USP of referral hiring is a much needed tool for companies, providing them key insights about the entire professional network of their employees. GrownOut was the first seed investment by Outbox Ventures and this round of funding led by Matrix Partners further strengthens our belief in our early-stage mentoring process.' said Niraj Singh, Founding Partner at Outbox Ventures, an existing investor in the company.

About GrownOut Solutions Private Limited:
GrownOut was founded with a vision of solving the hiring requirements of the industry using the latest available technologies. The company utilises well researched techniques of referral hiring to make candidate sourcing easier and more efficient. With the help of GrownOut, organisations can harness the power of their employee's professional network to recruit high-quality candidates. Referral candidates are generally hired faster and stay at companies much longer compared to any other recruiting medium. The company's vision is to productise such techniques and serve their clients using online platforms and emerge as a primary hiring tool for the industry. Further information is available atwww.grownout.com

About Matrix Partners India:
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with INR 3,000 crore under management. The firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer market at the seed, early and early growth stages. The firm has invested in several market leading companies in the consumer technology space including Quikr (online classifieds), Ola (local transportation marketplace), Stayzilla (hotels and alternate stays marketplace), LimeRoad (mobile social commerce marketplace), Newshunt (mobile local language platform), MSwipe (mobile POS), WeAreHolidays (outbound travel marketplace) and Woo (social dating) among others. Matrix Partners has a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India with US $3 billion under management. Further information is available atwww.matrixpartners.in