Bengaluru-based Hunar.AI has raised Rs 39.3 crore in a Series A round led by Blume Ventures. The conversational AI startup will use the money to strengthen its AI infrastructure, build more products and expand operations. Hunar.AI has not disclosed its valuation.
Blume Ventures put in Rs 29 crore of the round. Seedstars invested Rs 3.31 crore and Hyderabad Angels Fund Rs 3 crore. AVNM Ventures and PhysicsWallah co-founders Alakh Pandey and Prateek Maheshwari also joined, according to reports citing regulatory filings.
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What Hunar.AI Builds
Hunar.AI was founded by Krishna Khandelwal and Shantanu Bhattacharyya. The company builds conversational AI agents for hiring and managing frontline workers. The agents handle candidate screening, interview scheduling and follow-ups. They also support onboarding, training and workforce engagement in regional languages. Hunar.AI positions the agents as workflow specific tools, not general purpose chatbots.
Who Uses Its Platform
The platform is built for companies that employ large frontline teams across many locations. Quick commerce, logistics, retail, mobility and financial services are the main targets. Hunar.AI says the work happens at scale without leaning fully on manual recruitment. The same agents can be reused across locations with little manual setup. Its customers include Croma and Tata 1mg.
The Market It Is Chasing
NITI Aayog estimated India’s gig workforce at 7.7 million in 2020-21. It projected the number to reach 23.5 million by 2029-30. That is more than triple the base year. The forecast is the base case for hiring automation. Companies hiring across cities face the same set of problems. Coordinating recruitment, onboarding and daily communication gets harder when teams are spread over regions with different languages.
What The Founder And Investor Say
Krishna Khandelwal, co-founder and chief executive of Hunar.AI, said frontline workforce management is one of the largest yet most under-served opportunities in enterprise AI. He said the sector needs technology that understands industry workflows and works reliably at scale.
Arpit Agarwal, partner at Blume Ventures, said India’s commerce and logistics sectors are creating more complex frontline operations. He said Hunar.AI’s focus on business outcomes could help it expand beyond India.
The cheque comes as hiring tools for frontline staff draw more capital from investors. Several AI hiring startups are chasing the same enterprise budgets. The test for Hunar.AI will be whether AI agents can cut recruitment costs without hurting hiring quality.