Flush with funds, Indian unicorns on a talent hunt | Economic Times

India’s coveted unicorn club is witnessing an all-out war for talent. In all, 23 startups have become unicorns - valued at $1 billion or more - so far this year. Of these, 14 companies told ET that they were looking to ramp up headcount, across product, technology, data analytics, customer support, sales, content, design, and operations teams. The hiring boom — by upGrad, Moglix, BrowserStack, Zeta, Eruditus, PharmEasy, BharatPe, Gupshup, Meesho, Urban Company, Droom, Digit Insurance, CoinDCX, and Cred — is driven by new product launches, expansion into uncharted territories as well as verticals. Eruditus, which entered the unicorn club last week, is looking to hire 1,000 people over the next year. “Our business is growing 2.75x year on year, and the main roles we are hiring for are instruction design, curriculum development, marketing and student support,” said Ashwin Damera, co-founder of the edtech company. upGrad is looking to hire about 1,500 employees to cater to its Indian and global teams by the end of this financial year. The hiring is being driven by geographical and group expansion as well as diversity in business lines and product portfolio, said Preeti Kaul, president of HR. Competition is driving up compensation levels across the industry, with generous Employee Stock Ownership Plans (Esops) driving up packages at the top end to Rs 5 crore and beyond, said Anuj Roy, managing partner at executive search firm Fidius Advisory. “We enable wealth creation through fixed income, equity and the opportunity to participate in Esop buybacks frequently,” said Kunal Shah, founder of credit card bill payment platform Cred, which is looking to grow its team by 40% over this financial year. Salaries, bonuses and stocks are key components of the compensation package at messaging platform Gupshup, which is looking to double its workforce by hiring 300 more. “With our recent round of fundraising, we have given employees a chance to sell their highly appreciated shares back to the company. Those that join us stand to gain a lot in the years to come,” Beerud Sheth, CEO of Gupshup told ET. PharmEasy, BharatPe, Meesho, Urban Company, CoinDCX, and Droom are collectively looking to hire around 1,000 people. PharmEasy is looking for senior talent for its engineering, product management, finance and operations teams, while BharatPe is focused on strengthening its strategy, analytics, technology, product, and corporate services teams. Urban Company will be onboarding engineers as well as hiring leaders for various verticals including design and research, its SVP of HR, Neha Mathur, said. Moglix is looking for product managers, developers, and software engineers, and will ramp up its team by 1,000 as it continues to expand into new verticals and geographies. BrowserStack is looking to double its current headcount over the next 18 months across Ireland, United States, and India. 85332788