Kula, a US-based recruitment automation platform, has announced raising $12 million in a seed funding round co-anchored by Sequoia Capital India and Square Peg Capital.
Existing investors Venture Highway and Together Fund also doubled down on their investment, Kula said in a statement. The round brings Kula’s total funds raised to $15 million in the 13 months since its launch.
Kula raised $2.7 million in its pre-seed funding round in January, led by Venture Highway, GFC and Together Fund.
Founded by Achuthanand Ravi, Sathappan Muthupalaniappan and Suman Kumar Dey, Kula automates outbound recruitment and makes referrals effortless.
The startup sources passive candidates from sites such as LinkedIn, Github and employee networks to build a talent pool of such candidates and then automates all communications across multiple channels.
Kula now has a team of 12 spread across two countries and serves a handful of alpha customers. It has also built a waitlist of over 1,200 brands.
The startup said it will use the fresh funds to recruit talent for R&D, product and go-to-market teams across the US, Singapore and India.
“We are extremely proud of what we have achieved and we are excited about what the future holds in store,” Ravi, who was previously a recruiter at Stripe, Uber and Freshworks, said in a post on its website.
One of the lead investors, Australian VC Square Peg, is raising $550 million to expand its commitment to back startups in its key markets of Australia and Israel, with a growing focus on Southeast Asia’s booming tech markets.
Founded in 2012, the venture capital firm is one of Australia’s largest, with more than $1 billion in assets under management across multiple funds.
Sequoia Capital India, on the other hand, invests in consumer, technology and healthcare. It operates in Southeast Asia and India.