Congrats, You Are Hired!

As the economy stagnates and companies lay off employees, some startups that see opportunities during the pandemic are charting out aggressive hiring and expansion strategies

- Harichandan Arakali

In early March, Akshat Singhal, a software products and analytics specialist, travelled to Bengaluru from his home in the National Capital Region for a job interview at Razorpay. After India imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 24, the rest of the hiring and onboarding process was virtual. Singhal finally joined the payments and financial technology venture on May 18, the day the third phase of the lockdown came to an end. “I was at the right place at the right time,” says Singhal, 30, who will soon relocate to Bengaluru.

Even as many Indian companies stare at a stalled economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, some startups are seeing demand going up for their products and services as the country cautiously emerges out of a two-month-long lockdown. These startups are recruiting aggressively.

Covid-19 has especially been a turning point for the fintech sector. While the pandemic has imposed business restrictions and created uncertainty on a number of fronts, there are also new opportunities due to increased demand for digital payments and digital financial processes from the offline businesses. Many startups in this sector are re-examining their business models, hiring plans, and are currently prioritising growth and customer acquisition over profitability.

Razorpay, for example, is hiring for over 50 critical positions across functions like back-end, frontend, data sciences, and product management, the company said in a recent press release. In the last 12 months, the startup has more than doubled its headcount from 330 to 770, with 15 percent headcount increase happening in the past six months.