[Startup Bharat] Ranchi-based recruitment startup Biofie uses AI to simplify hiring process

Looking for a new job often translates into sprucing up your resume. However, the textual format often doesn’t offer sufficient data points for recruiters to make an informed selection, or let candidates showcase their personalities.

BIT Mesra alumnus Mrityunjay Sharma realised this gap in the job search and recruitment space after working in the HR industry for five years.

In December 2018, along with college senior Santosh Kumar and Santosh’s wife, Anindita Ghosh, Mritunjay founded Biofie. The Ranchi-based startup is a hiring platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to bridge the gap in the recruitment space. 

Biofie’s added interventions to make the entire job search and hiring process efficient include video resumes and an AI-powered job matching process. 

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The story so far

Bootstrapped since inception with Rs 44 lakh, Biofie was founded in 2018, but became operational only in March 2019. Headquartered in Ranchi, it has a small office in Gurugram. 

In the last one year, the startup has managed to grow its database to over 20,000 candidates, acquiring 300 candidates on average every day. It has so far acquired 110 companies as recruiters, including the likes of Capgemini, Godrej, Myntra, and Nobroker.com, among others. 

“Our major challenge so far has been solving the chicken-egg problem - acquiring recruiters and candidates simultaneously,” Mrityunjay says. 

Biofie addressed this through an aggressive approach on both sides, with its resources and contacts, bringing candidates and recruiters online.

Candidates can post video resumes that best showcase their personalities apart from written resumes that provide general factual information. Biofie’s AI-powered algorithm ensures that only the most relevant jobs are showcased to the candidates, and the most eligible candidate to the recruiters. 

About the team 

Founder Santosh Kumar, 44, is a computer science engineer from BIT Mesra, and has previously been the Director of educational platform Career Launcher, in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad. Mritunjay has done his MBA from XLRI and has served as the HR Manager at Asian Paints. 

Co-founder Anindita, 44, has a PhD in neuro management from IIM Ranchi, and has spent four years in the banking industry.

“Her understanding of research in neuro management helps assess candidates on behavioural parameters, further sharpening matches for companies and candidates,” Mritunjay (33) says. 

How does the platform work? 

The word Biofie is a portmanteau that combines “biodata” and “selfie” . The startup claims to offer India's first video-based and verified profiles for recruitment. 

Candidates can sign up for a free account on the Biofie website. On entering their details and preferences, they can apply for up to 50 jobs per month, all well suited to their profiles. After that, they need to subscribe to a premium account.

Candidates also get to select from premium services, including personalised job search assistance. Job seekers can select premium subscriptions from a bunch of options. The 12-month subscription is priced at Rs 999, and a relationship manager’s services for 90 days amount to Rs 1,299.

Recruiters also get to sign up for free of cost. Biofie offers two options, to either post job openings or search the database. They are charged different slabs for the number of jobs they post or the size of database they choose to search from. Premium charges for recruiters vary from company to company. 

Both candidates and recruiters’ profiles are updated on a real-time basis. 

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The jobs market

The jobs market is at the core of every country’s progress and development. According to the World Bank, the jobs market will key for developing countries to improve people’s lives, reduce poverty, and reach Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Mritunjay claims that the Indian recruitment space is pegged at Rs 40,000 crore, and the search industry market size is at over Rs 700 crore. 

While LinkedIncontinues to be the favourite of job seekers and recruiters, players like Naukri.com, Shine.com, and Timesjobs have made a mark in the Indian recruitment space. Startups like Eazyhire, HiringMonk, Belong, Workruit, and MeraJobs have also joined the list of recruitment platforms.

However, Mritunjay believes that Biofie’s USP lies in the fact that it provides a combination of video resumes and AI-powered matching algorithm. 

“Other players in the market are either job portal spaces or video interviewing platforms. Biofie is unique as it allows candidates to post video resumes on the portal,” Mrityunjay says.

Biofie is currently in talks with a couple of private equity firms to raise its pre-Series A round. Its growth plan includes creating a database of at least 10 million relevant applicants by the end of 2021.

"We also plan to use multiple IATs (Implicit Association Tests) to assess behavioural inclinations of candidates and match them suitably with hiring company cultures," Mritunjay says.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)