Tech-driven transparency: Bengaluru start-up aims to transform informal jobs into formal opportunities Premium

India’s labour force consists of more than 40 Crore people working in the informal sector, contributing to more than half of the Indian GDP. However, the sector is often tilted less in favour of the workers and marred with problems such as unfair wages, exploitation of workers, and non-compliant employers.

India’s labour force consists of more than 40 Crore people working in the informal sector, contributing to more than half of the Indian GDP. However, the sector is often tilted less in favour of the workers and marred with problems such as unfair wages, exploitation of workers, and non-compliant employers.

Bengaluru based Smartstaff aims to solve such problems through its tech-enabled staffing solutions that try to bring more transparency and formalise the informal workforce.

The genesis

Arpit Dave, Gnanesh Chilukuri and Aravind Reddy founded Smartstaff in 2021. Dave and Chilukuri were co-founders of food delivery logistics start-up Runnr which was acquired by Zomato in 2017. After spending more than a year building Zomato’s logistical platform the duo felt it was time for their next venture.

Their prior experience with Runnr had given them an idea about how smartphones could make the work of food delivery partners more efficient. With wider penetration of smartphones and the internet, they started wondering if the same would be applicable for the larger blue-collar workforce.

“The thesis was that as more and more blue-collar workers get access to smartphone, one of the very first thing that would change is the way they work; that they would get visibility of how much they are earning, their financials, benefits and so on smartphones in the coming years,” says Dave.

In 2021, the company started off with a software solution similar to HRMS and built it for a few months. But soon, they realised that offering a lightweight software layer alone wouldn’t solve the problems plaguing the sector.