Funding story
Freelancing has turned into a hugely lucrative profession of late, with the demands being imposed on the market post-recession creating a stable pool of people who can volunteer their specialized services on a project-by-project basis. Curated freelancer marketplaces have thus become extremely relevant. One of the most promising startups in this regard is Truelancer. Founded in September 2014 by Dipesh Garg and Rajsekhar, Truelance secured seed funding from the Blackstone Valley Group led by Raghu Vohra, Aditya Dev Sood, Kamal Bansal and other angel investors. Truelancer seeks to use the funding to scale up aggressively, and to promote freelancers possessing an ever greater range of skills to a much larger number of clients.
About Truelancer
The Delhi-based startup seeks to create a pool of talented freelancers who will respond easily and effectively to on-demand hiring needs. Currently, Truelance has managed to pool together as many as 200,000 skilled freelancers. Over 300,000 people visit the site monthly, with a massive increase being reported over the past few months. The freelancers registered with the site belong to a diverse range of fields, which consists of Graphic Design and Multimedia, Customer Support and Service, Content Writing, Mobile Application, Data Entry and Sales, among others. A total of 10 categories are listed, and those requiring freelancers can easily choose from a whole range of skilled professionals, whose CVs and pricing requirements are easily accessible. Moreover, all those budding freelancers who seek to make use of the high demand for their skills can easily post their CVs and pricing requirements on the site itself. Truelancer is particularly popular with budding content writers. Posing a profile on the site requires a simple login, a process which is both free and occurs in the blink of an eye.
What we think
Truelancer has grand plans in the pipeline-a mobile app and an enterprise solution are expected to be unveiled in the coming months. It is also planning to launch a novel collaboration tool which will allow employers and freelancers to work even more closely and effectively. A huge boom is projected to occur in this segment over the next few years, which the likes of Truelancer are well-placed to make maximum use of.
