Astronaut, an Indonesia- and Singapore-based mobile-first recruitment platform, announced today that it has acquired POPSkul, an on-demand skill certification platform, for an undisclosed sum.
With this acquisition, Astronaut will continue to invest in accelerating the POPSkul platform, and be integrating skills certificates into the candidate profiles in the Astronaut platform.
In addition, Astronaut also said it is raising US$2 million in a pre-Series A round as it looks to accelerate the growth with further technology innovation and new partnerships in Indonesia, Singapore, and globally.
Founded in 2016, Astronaut enables companies to identify the right candidates from larger candidate pools, for both immediate hiring and to build talent pools for future hiring. The firm claims it standardises the process of delivering the best candidate, with less bias and automates the hiring workflow to ensure no wasted time for candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers.
In addition to its focus on Southeast Asia, Astronaut also has clients in Europe and New Zealand. In Q2 2021, Astronaut claims it has grown recruitment clientele by 30 per cent in Indonesia, Singapore, and India. It also commenced a student admissions partnership with the National University of Singapore and is powering Kompas Group’s new online learning capability.
On the other hand, Indonesia-based POPSkul enables people the opportunity to “get certified fast”, especially during the pandemic, which is critical for candidates to be well accessed by employers, said Chandra Marsono, founder of POPSkuls.
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“We want to offer a solution to the highly inefficient recruitment process outsourcing industry that is expected to grow to US$40.6 billion by 2027,” said Nigel Hembrow, CEO and co-founder of Astronaut. “Our vision at Astronaut is to create a sustainable and scalable talent ecosystem through technology in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, and globally.”
According to Indonesia’s Government Head of Statistics, Dr Suhariyanto, around 8.8 per cent (2,56 million) of the working-age population are unemployed, while the workforce is about to welcoming 30 million fresh graduates over the next five years. This calls for more innovative solutions to match the demand and supply side of the talent market better.
Leveraging from the huge demographic advantage in Southeast Asia, digitisation of the talent ecosystem in the region is at an inflection point as the pandemic forced universities and assessment centres to adapt towards reliable, cost-effective digital tools for talent services and hybrid working conditions.
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Image Credit: Astronaut
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