BetterPlace, India’s largest technology platform delivering digital solutions for blue-collar workforce management throughout the entire value chain, has acquired a majority stake in MyRobin, an Indonesia-based job portal, marking its foray into the South East Asia market.
However, the company did not disclose the size of the deal.
According to the company, the deal will be closed in four tranches, and over the next few years, BetterPlace will take over the rest of the shares of MyRobin too.
Launched in 2020, MyRobin provides on-demand, pre-screened, frontline workers on a long- and short-term basis to enterprises in Indonesia and reports it has more than 3 million workers in its community. The HRTech company also provides attendance and performance management services and offers embedded financial services such as early wages. In addition, it has a frontline workforce upskilling platform called MyRobin Academy. Its customers include Shopee, Astro, Sicepat, E-Fishery and Kopi Kenangan.
Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder & Group Chief Executive Officer of BetterPlace, Pravin Agarwala, said:
As the largest player in Asia today, we are thrilled to welcome MyRobin to the BetterPlace family and further our vision towards formalizing the frontline workforce globally. With our technology and MyRobin’s expertise in operating in Indonesia, we would be able to introduce equitable opportunities for the frontline segment.
MyRobin’s acquisition will help BetterPlace to tap the workforce management market in South-East Asia, which it considers to be as large as $280 billion, the company said in a statement.
Adding further about the development, Co-founder & CEO of My Robin, Sidharth Kumar, said:
Post the deal, the platform that BetterPlace has built will elevate us to be the best. We will also invest pillar to pillar and strength to strength.
BetterPlace, co-founded by Pravin Agarwala and Saurabh Tandon, offers a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. It helps its clients handle the entire lifecycle of their blue-collar workforce by providing them with hiring, background verification and digital onboarding services. The platform also provides training, attendance management, payroll, and compliance services. The company’s vision is to empower the Indian frontline workforce with access to a better life.
Co-founder & CTO of MyRobin, Ardy Satria Hasanuddin, commented:
As the next chapter of our growth we would like to take our vision and expertise to more geographies, and BetterPlace is the perfect partner who will enable us to achieve this goal.
The Bengaluru-based startup plans to expand into Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines in the near future through organic and inorganic strategies. It will retain MyRobin’s existing team and grow in the future. BetterPlace reported a five-fold growth in revenue in the financial year ended March 2022 at about Rs 275 crore, Agarwala had said in an earlier interaction with VCCircle. It is also targeting to achieve a three-fold growth in revenue in FY23, the company further mentioned.
The latest deal marks BetterPlace’s sixth acquisition since 2020, but it’s first overseas. Its previous acquisitions include work management platform OkayGo, ezeDox, and OLX People, micro-learning platform Oust Labs, and beauty-tech startup Fabulys. To date, the company has raised $80 million in Series A, B, and C rounds. It last raised $40 million as a part of its extended Series C round in December 2022 from Macquarie Capital, Jungle Ventures, Unitus Ventures, British International Investment, Capria Ventures, and 3one4 Capital.
