HackerEarth shifts focus to talent management and hackathons

The Bengaluru-based startup recently raised Series A funding of $4.5 million

Bengaluru-based HackerEarth, which started as a recruitment facilitator, has changed its focus to talent management and hackathons, says Gireesh Babu

Fact Box

Launch date: November 2012

Area of business: Innovation and talent management

Founders: Sachin Gupta and Vivek Prakash

Funding: Series-A funding of $4.5 million from DHI Group; It has raised a seed round of $500,000 from Prime Ventures in February, 2014. GSF Global accelerator funding of $120,000 in 2013

Target: To add 1,500 paying customers in next 3-4 years

The Bengaluru police and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation, along with Nasscom, asked HackerEarth to conduct a hackathon and it came up with a few solutions, including  an integrated platform for crime reporting and a traffic management system.

This is what Bengaluru-based HackerEarth, a network of developers offering crowdsourcing for innovation management, does for a living. The company also has SaaS-based skill assessment and recruitment software, which helps companies to identify candidates and assess skills of employees. HackerEarth has 1.2 million developers, of  which 75 per cent are based in India and the rest in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia. 

HackerEarth recently raised Series A funding of $4.5 million (Rs 30 crore) from DHI Group, which owns Dice, a leading career site for technology professionals in the US. The other investors were BEENEXT, BEENOS, Digital Garage and BizReach. HackerEarth’s current investor, Prime Venture Partners, also participated in this round. The money will go into expansion in international markets. HackerEarth has raised a seed round of $500,000 from Prime Ventures. 

Shripati Acharya, managing partner, Prime Venture Partners, said, “It’s been a tremendous experience to watch HackerEarth grow from a start-up to a global leader in innovation management. HackerEarth provides the products that have become essential to survive amid technology disruption.”

HackerEarth, started in November 2012 by Sachin Gupta, its CEO, and Vivek Prakash, its CTO, both from IIT Roorkee, was looking at solving recruitment problems faced by companies. In October 2012, they joined the GSF global cross-border accelerator programme and received a funding of $120,000 in February 2013. 

Hackerearth Recruit, the first product launched in 2013, allows companies to use online coding tests to automate their screening process. With a library of more than 20,000 questions, and with support in over 32 languages, technical leads and even non-tech recruiters can conduct tests on a large scale to grade developers for virtually any technical role. 

Over the years, it has found another use for this software to evaluate employees and for their development initiatives. 

Using the technology, HackerEarth started conducting programming contests and a large number of developers wanted to participate in challenges. Thus HackerEarth built a developer community.

It stumbled on another business opportunity when a company approached it to conduct a hackathon. In 2015, it launched Hackerearth Sprint, providing companies a platform to ideate and collaborate on. It also helps companies to crowdsource solutions.

HackerEarth also hosts a global network of developers which companies can tap into through Sprint. “In the last two years we could have done around 1,000 hackathons in banking, industrial IoT, health care, machine learning, AI, mobility,” said Gupta.

Revenue model

Recruit as a platform is a SaaS-based model which companies buy annually. Sprint comes in two models — one is as a SaaS-based model and the other as a hackathon. There are more than 500 customers worldwide using the Recruit platform, including Amazon, DBS, UBS, and L&T Infotech. Starting at $5,000 in the domestic market, Recruit is priced anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000 in the international market.

IBM, Walmart Labs, Wipro, Bosch, and HDFC Bank are some of the companies using Sprint. The platform charges companies between $25,000 and $50,000 for Sprint, depending on the number of users on the platform. Having close to 250 paying customers, HackerEarth also makes additional revenues by charging $10,000-30,000 for hosting a hackathon.

Way forward

HackerEarth’s challenges are related to scaling up. The company can hit profitability, but is focusing on investing. “We do not really need money for sustenance,” said Gupta. It is looking at 100 per cent growth and wants to achieve it by expanding in India and exploring international markets. The strategic focus will be in the US.

Expert take: Customising products for different verticals a challenge

Pavan Soni, Innovation evangelist and founder of Inflexion Point

The largely held belief in corporates is that innovation management is an oxymoron. Most managers believe quality, productivity and even talent can be managed but somehow innovation can’t. That mindset is punishing growth and revival in the corporate  world.

Research and popular press have advocated firms those treat innovation as more scientific are far more successful than those deeming innovation as artistic. Tools such as Sprint from HackerEarth could well assist enterprises, large and small, to systematically solicit ideas, shortlist opportunities, and measure the returns on innovation investment.

The innovation management market, approximately $200 million, is growing steadily. When it comes to innovation management, there are collaboration tools available in the market by some leading players. But, with limitations for driving innovation, businesses are asking for solutions which can combine different aspects such as idea management, innovation consulting, and access to open innovation. This is a big opportunity for players like HackerEarth.

Also, the market is very fragmented right now. There is no clear differentiation in terms of product offerings. The market needs a good product which can help companies to drive innovation from within. There are around 15 major global players now.

The challenge, I see, for HackerEarth is how will they customise the products for different verticals and how will they see through the execution phase (i.e taking a proof of concept/prototype further to the market)