Bharti Airtel has increased its stake in the artificial intelligence-based job platform, Vahan, according to an announcement on Thursday by Bharti Airtel. It said it will acquire an additional 2.86 per cent stake in Vahan, which will take its stake in the company to 11.68 per cent. In October, 2019, the telecom giant had picked 8.82 per cent of the Bengaluru-based startup. The completion of the acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals.
The company hopes to support early stage tech startups and partner with them in building significant scale through its Startup Accelerator Program. The Startup Accelerator Program is part of the increase in Vahan's stake.
The additional stake was picked at an unknown sum and is likely to be completed by June 30, 2022. The acquisition of shares of Investee is done at a mutually agreed post money enterprise valuation. The valuation is not disclosed due to reasons of confidentiality, Airtel stated in a BSE filing.
Vahan was founded in the US on April 6 by Madhav Krishna. The startup uses artificial intelligence to match job seekers and employers. It is backed by YCombinator and Khosla Ventures.
It claims to reduce sourcing costs by up to 30 per cent and reduce turnaround time by up to 20 per cent, apart from reducing dependence on hundreds of recruitment vendors.