Founded in February 2012,
EdGE Networks is a Bangalore-based HR Tech startup offering nextgen workforce planning solutions to organisations. Connecting the right person to the right job is its mantra – with a Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) based approach to solving this. Being a product innovation partner with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) of India, it continuously strive to support the development of skills for various industries.
Arjun Pratap is founder and chief executive officer at EdGE Networks. Fuelled by the vision to build innovative, future-focused HR technology solutions – which re-engineer Human Resource Management to positively impact business outcomes – Arjun leads EdGE Networks to be a disruptor in the skill development space.
Prior to EdGE Networks, Arjun worked with organizations such as SpeedERA Networks and Akamai Technologies, where he was responsible for building their India and international businesses. He also headed the sales function at Dexler Information Solutions to provide strategic direction in building the company. Arjun holds a postgraduate degree in Information Systems and International Business, from The University of Sydney, Australia.
Team BWDisrupt Interacts With Arjun Pratap, Founder, EdGE Networks And Spoke To HimWhat is your Product or Service/Offerings to Customer?With our specialized solutions we are able to infiltrate masses of complicated data and provide quick, sharp insights to optimize talent acquisition and employee management methods. We also help identify the right skills to acquire - and how to gain them based on what managers are seeking today. To enable this to happen seamlessly, we have built a neural network of skills and jobs that will learn and grow over time using our source-validate-connect algorithms run with Natural Language Processing (NLP).
In short, we add an intelligence layer to HR systems that can transform a company’s workforce.
Our people have expertise in Artificial Intelligence, Semantic Analysis, Data Science, Machine Learning and Predictive Modelling. All of which is geared to enable HR organizations lead with data and intelligence - and significantly improve workforce availability, billing, allocation and drive straight bottom line impacts.
How did the entrepreneurial bug bite you? Sieving through resumes for a job seemed to be a universal problem for small and big companies alike, coupled with the fact that I wanted to build something that would connect the right person to the right job. That’s when the idea struck.
Personally, I have experienced a set of jobs that led me to believe that most people are in pursuit of passion, money and status. This they find hard to capture as a package and this can be delivered seamlessly, if they better understood their goals and their capabilities. With our solutions, we intend bridging this gap by addressing the friction of finding a job by relating the demand and supply quotient across a platform.
How are you different from the existing ones?The value proposition that we offer our customers is very distinctive.
The unique nature of the value proposition is that we use Natural Language Processing (NLP) Algorithms with a data science approach to analyse Job Descriptions and Profiles/resumes, and provide a scored and stack ranked set of people for the job in question.
This is further bolstered with our ability to do this for an internal workforce and to acquire talent from portals. Done using advanced technology with minimum human intervention - the disruption we create is the value of time and accuracy, delivered consistently.
Funding status and monetization model NSDC funded us with grant and debt besides two angels and myself putting in the seed capital. We are exploring the next round of funding.
Currently, we have a subscription based monetization model.
Traction detailsWe cater to a wide array of clients, from large IT conglomerates to leading staffing firm. Our clients include Wipro, TeamLease, HCL and Microland.
Our products and solutions have a layer of analytics built into them which allow us to measure the business impact juxtaposed with data shared by the client. We have impacted both revenue and profits of companies, resulting from improved time, cost and accuracy of talent management.
Some of the benefits include: a 4-time increase in supply visibility; 36 percent increase in allocation via Project Manager; 51 percent reduction in allocation failures; 33 percent improvement in fulfilling external requisitions with internal people; 30 percent reduction in Workforce Management Group; a 300 percent increase in portal utilization; 58 percent reduction in time taken to shortlist candidates; 28 percent conversion rate from recommendation to actual joinees and 100 percent resume/profile coverage.
With regard to our future plans, you can expect super innovation across multiple customers we acquire; customer acquisition is the goal for this year along with our SMB SaaS offering being rolled out.
Market size and market opportunityThe addressable market is $5 billion and we intend targeting 10% of that market across the next 5 years.
The opportunity is to build the intelligence layer across legacy HR systems that can’t be replaced.
Also, to replace systems that have workflows that are soon being built with a better experience across our platform; these could be the HCMs and the ATS’ of the world.
What advice you want to give to the new entrants in this space? In a world where change and uncertainty is a given, organizations are looking for agility in talent. A person with a high level of adaptability and willingness to take on newer and bigger challenges is preferred. The startup culture is beginning to have its influence on large MNCs as well.
A risk-taking ability and out-of-the-box thinking are characteristics that even large companies are looking for. With the proliferation of SMAC technologies, companies across industries are gradually changing their skills mix to include more SMAC experts.
EdGE Networks is in the business of bringing the right people to the right job. What sets us apart is the fact that we do this in an efficient manner by espousing innovative technologies—Natural Language Processing, Artificial Neural Networks, Machine Learning and Predictive Modelling.
