Job site BetterPlace has partnered with British International Investment (BII), the U.K. government’s development finance institution, for an upskilling and employment initiative for women in India.
According to a report on BWDisrupt, BII will fund BetterPlace to upskill and employ 100,000 female workers by 2024. The partnership will see BetterPlace work with several organizations that are at the forefront of empowering women and sensitizing the corporate ecosystem to gender inequalities.
“We are honored to be partnering with British International Investment and working towards bridging the gender gap in our frontline workforce. I strongly believe that with the right intent and a robust tech platform, we can create an ecosystem which is conducive to women’s workforce participation. I hope that this initiative is one of many that would [sic.] create a future workforce, which is equitable, productive and geared towards creating immense value for the Indian economy,” said Pravin Agarwala, co-founder and CEO of BetterPlace.
“BII is pleased to partner with BetterPlace on this pilot project, which aims to accelerate women’s entry into India’s workforce. Increasing inclusive economic opportunities remains a critical precondition for productive and inclusive development within any country, and I am thrilled that BII’s flexible capital will back a tech-enabled program designed to provide employability support and skills development for women — increasing their participation in the economy and improving their livelihoods. Through successful implementation of this model, we see strong potential for this program to serve as a blueprint for transforming the workforce and uplifting women’s economic empowerment both in India and across the world,” commented Manav Bansal, managing director and head of India at BII.
Founded by Pravin and Saurabh Tandon in 2015, BetterPlace specializes in blue-collar recruitment. It recently raised $12 million U.S. from Jungle Ventures and appointed Vikram Bhaskar, formerly chief revenue officer at Monster India as its new chief business officer.
Since late last year, BetterPlace has acquired OLX’s WaahJobs, in addition to gig-work portal OkayGo and workforce management site EzeDox.
