Flush with cash, startups speed up hiring in a slowing economy
BENGALURU: Bike rental startup Vogo plans to more than double the number of employees by the end of next year, unfazed by the consumption slowdown in India that has brought makers of cars to consumer goods to their knees.
Bengaluru-based Vogo’s chief executive, Anand Ayyadurai, wants to expand his team to 1,000 by the end of 2020 from 400 now, after growing the startup’s employee strength 20-fold over about 12 months.
“We plan to invest very significantly in this (people) now, as it is about capability building. A temporary slowdown in India does not necessarily impact the startup economy because the bets these guys (tech startups) are taking are 5-10 years long,” he said.
Vogo is not the only startup on a hiring spree. With fund inflow into tech startups continuing at a brisk pace, startup hiring may not be immediately affected due to the current economic slowdown in India, according to several startup founders and analysts.
According to professional social networking site Linkedin, 25 companies on its 2019 list of top startups in India collectively created around 18,000 jobs in the past year and are expected to create more than 19,000 new opportunities over the next 12 months. Hospitality startup Oyo, health and fitness startup Cure.fit and online consultation platform Tapchief occupied the top three spots. Nearly 50% of the firms on the list are based in Bengaluru.
Analysts and headhunters tracking startups say that roles in demand include full-stack developers with knowledge of both front- and back-end programming, digital marketers, data scientists and IOT (Internet of Things) hardware developers.
Atit Danak, manager and head of CONXT, consulting firm Zinnov’s startup collaboration practice, said around 5,000 startups are hiring for full-time senior engineering and business roles. Based on their research, these companies are likely to hire three-four people and in some cases 10-20, depending on funding. “There are 15,000-20,000 open positions now,” he said.
While expertise in analytics, AI/ML (artificial intelligence/ machine learning) and IOT continue to be in demand, full-stack developers are the most in demand at present. “It is difficult to hire developers with fourseven years of experience as there is no dearth of options for them,” he said.
Commenting on hiring trends in 2019, compared to those of previous years, Danak said that in FY19, “systematic funding was back and there is an increase in the demand side. However, companies are also making pragmatic hiring choices and we expect the trend to continue”.
Anshuman Das, managing partner at Longhouse Consulting, says there is an uptick in tech talent across mobility and software as a service (Saas) startups. “On an average, roughly any Saas company that has raised a Series B and beyond is a team of roughly 100 people. And typically, there would be at least 30-40 companies of this type in the Saas space.”