2. CONTENTS
Overview.............................................................1
Investment Strategy
Investment Focus.....................................12
The HR Fund
Investment Criteria..................................13
Investment Case.........................................2
Investment Opportunity
Structure......................................................4
Analysis Framework ...............................14
Execution Strategy...................................15
Current Portfolio........................................5
Differentiators.............................................6
Investors......................................................8
Executive Management Team.................11
Case Study.........................................................16
3. OVERVIEW
The HR Fund is India’s first dedicated HR venture fund with
the vision to transform the industry by institutionalising HR
entrepreneurship. Our focus is primarily on four key areas:
Professional Employee Organizations, Staffing, Training
and Technology.
The HR Fund is a privately held investment company that
funds private HR companies. We provide growth capital to
best-in-class HR ideas and practices. Our current portfolio
consists of two companies - People Strong and People Matters.
The HR Fund investors consist of senior HR professionals and
eminent thought leaders; these individuals are based across
the globe.
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5. MATURE U.S. MARKET SHOWS ACHIEVABLE GROWTH
Businesses of HR
• Staffing & Executive Search
• Recruitment & e-cruitment
• Assessment and Verification
• Payroll
• HR Software Solutions
• Time & Attendance Solutions
• Outplacement Services
• HR Consulting
• HR Outsourcing (HRO)
• Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
• Professional Employer Organizations (PEO)
Why Invest?
• Increasingly outsourced business function
• Strong and stable growth sector
• Highly scalable and high margin businesses
• High returns on invested capital
• Indian industry still in its nascent stage
TYPE
NAME
$ REVENUE EMPLOYEES FOUNDED EXCHANGE
KORN/Ferry
676 Million
2090
1969
NYSE
Heidrick & Struggles
644 Million
1751
1968
NASDAQ
Robert Half
4.6 Billion
13,300
1948
NYSE
MPS Group
2.2 Billion
16,900
1995
NYSE
Manpower
21 Billion
4,033,000
1948
NYSE
Kelly Services
5.5 Billion
650,000
1946
NASDAQ
Staffing – Online
Monster
1.3 Billion
6,950
1994
NYSE
RPO
Kenexa Corp
203 Million
1535
1987
NASDAQ
ADP
8.8 Billion
45,000
1949
NASDAQ
Paychex
2 Billion
12,500
1971
NASDAQ
PEO
Administaff
1.7 Billion
118748
1986
NYSE
HR Consulting
Watson Wyatt
1.8 Billion
7500
1878
NYSE
HR Software
Ultimate Software
178 Million
933
1990
NASDAQ
HR Outsourcing
Hewitt
3.2 Billion
23,000
1940
NYSE
Executive Search
Staffing – General
Staffing – Temporary
Payroll
Research compiled from Withya Group
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6. STRUCTURE
FUND SOURCE
CXOs from major corporations in
from India/Singapore/Middle East/
USA Strategic Institutional investors
THE HR FUND
(Pvt. Ltd.)
• Private Holding company
• Corporate Governance and Reporting Structures
• Dedicated Investment Management Team
• Focused Investment Program
PeopleStrong
(Gurgaon)
HRO | RPO |
Payroll
People Matters
(Gurgaon)
HR Media |
Research
Equity Investment
Equity Investment
Potential
Companies
(being evaluated for
investments)
7. CURRENT
PORTFOLIO
www.peoplestrong.com
PeopleStrong is a leading HR Outsourcing company, specialising in HR Shared Services, Recruitment,
Payroll & Compliance Management, and HR Technology Solutions. With a pan-India presence,
PeopleStrong services global players across industries and is one of the first movers in BFSI, IT/ITES,
Auto, Pharmaceutical, and Education Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) in India. PeopleStrong
has implemented the largest number of HR Shared Services projects in India. It provides compelling
solutions to employers in all segments with over 70 multinational clients. The company creates value for
its customers by helping their organisations add reliability and accuracy to their HR output.
www.peoplematters.com
People Matters is a leading knowledge and media platform in the HR space. It strives to create an HR
community of practice and excellence between HR Managers, HR Service Providers and CXOs leading
to growth and development of their most important asset, people. People Matters offline and online
platform provides thousands of HR stakeholders with information, best practices, trends and industry
news. It has emerged as India’s single point of reference for products and services in the HR industry.
The HR Fund’s investment in People Matters was the first external investment in the business. Senior
figures from the Fund are on the advisory board and are contributing significantly to the future growth
of the business.
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8. DIFFERENTIATORS
“ Details matter, it’s worth waiting to
get it right.” - Steve Jobs
Team
• Our Team has an extensive experience of building profitable businesses in the HR space
• We assist entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses by applying proven, strategic approaches
• By adding corporate governance, we provide structured growth for rapidly growing organizations
Investors
• Our investors include highly successful CXOs and senior HR professionals who can provide entrepreneurs
with guidance and inputs to successfully operate their business
• They have an extensive business network in India and globally which can be tapped by the entrepreneurs
• They advise, make introductions and provide client references for our investee companies
Economies of Scale
• Since we exclusively fund businesses in the HR domain, our sales team in various companies leverage each
other’s network
• As all our investments are in the HR space, resource reutilization results in lower operational costs
10. INVESTORS
“ Vision is the art of seeing what is
invisible to others.” - Jonathan Swift
Arvind Agrawal
Arvind Agrawal is the President – Corporate Development and
Group HR in the RPG Group – a company he has worked with
since 1999. His current responsibilities in RPG comprise HR
and TQM.
JCB and Escorts Construction Equipment Limited. In addition,
he was a member of the HR function in companies such as
Escorts and Modi Xerox. He is an IIT Kharagpur and IIM
Ahmedabad alumni and also holds a PhD from IIT Mumbai.
Prior to this he was Chief Executive at Escorts responsible for
the two construction equipment business companies – Escorts
Arvind is an investor in The HR Fund.
N.S. Rajan
NS Rajan is member - Group Executive Council and Group
Chief Human Resources Officer at TATA Sons
Prior to this he was Partner and Global Leader – People &
Organization, Ernst & Young. He set up the HR consulting
practice of E&Y in India from scratch in early 2001, was made
the EMEIA Leader in 2009, and appointed as the first Global
Leader for the P&O Practice in 2011. An Economics graduate
from Loyola College, Chennai and a business management post
graduate from XLRI, Rajan spent 18 years in industry, before
joining E&Y.
NS is an investor in The HR Fund.
11. Pankaj Bansal
Pankaj Bansal is Founder of PeopleStrong, an HR Outsourcing
company in India. Pankaj is also co-founder of the Withya
Group.
Earlier, he was with Aricent (erstwhile Hughes Software
Systems) as a part of the founding team of its BPO division.
Pankaj is also on the National Board of the National HRD
Network as the Chairman of its Young Minds Council and was
previously Vice President of the Delhi Chapter. He has a Masters
Degree in HR Management from the University of Pune and a
Bachelors degree in Entrepreneurship from Delhi University.
Pankaj is one of the promoters of The HR Fund. He is also on
the board of Directors.
Pratik Kumar
Pratik Kumar is the Executive Vice President Human resources
with Wipro Limited. He has been associated with Wipro
for the last 21 years and is a member of Wipro’s Corporate
Executive Council.
Infrastructure Engineering business as President – Wipro
Infrastructure Engineering. As a professional with over 25 years
experience, Pratik has experience in a variety of areas. Pratik is a
Post Graduate in Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur
In addition to his HR leadership role, Pratik also leads Wipro’s
Pratik is an investor in The HR Fund.
Dr. Santrupt Misra
Dr. Santrupt Misra is CEO, Carbon Black Business and
Director, Group Human Resources of the Aditya Birla Group
and Director on the apex decision making body of the USD 35
billion, Aditya Birla Group.
He has over 25 years of experience in Education, Training,
Consulting and Executive Development and has had fulltime professional work experience with the J.K. Group, the
Tata Institute of Social Sciences and Unilever, India. He holds
two postgraduate degrees in Political Science and Personnel
Management & Industrial Relations and has two PhDs in Public
Administration and Industrial Relations from India and the
Aston Business School in the UK, respectively.
Santrupt is an investor in The HR Fund.
Venky Mysore
Venky Mysore is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and
Managing Director (MD) of Kolkata Knight Riders, a
successful franchise in the highly lucrative cricket based Indian
Premier League.
in establishing operations in Asia. He has worked closely with
regulators to help shape insurance regulations in the country
and has prior experience with Birla Sun Life Insurance and
MetLife India.
He has an experience of over 25 years working in the
insurance industry including experience in North America and
Venky is an investor in The HR Fund. He is also on the board of
Directors.
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12. Devyani Vaishampayan
Devyani Vaishampayan is the global Head of HR at Rolls Royce
for the Marine Services business.
Her previous experience includes being Group HR Director for
AET Tankers (subsidiary of MISC with reporting to the Board)
and large Regional roles at the British Gas Group, Lucent
Technologies and Citigroup. In addition she has had consulting
experience at Price Waterhouse and at a boutique firm.
Devyani is a specialist in facilitating, managing and anticipating
HR issues to help organisations stay competitive. In addition to
being a trained Behavioural Scientist, Devyani holds a degree in
Electronics and an MBA.
Devyani is an investor in The HR Fund. She is also on the board
of Directors.
Archana Bhaskar
Archana Bhaskar is currently Head Talent & Development,
Downstream Businesses for Shell and is based out of
Singapore.
Director at Shell India. She was earlier HR Director UFS Europe
at Unilever. She is an IIM Bangalore Alumni and also holds a
degree from Lady Shriram College, New Delhi.
Prior to her current role at Shell Singapore, she was HR
Archana is an investor in The HR Fund.
Manojit Sen
Manojit Sen is currently Head of Learning for Shell’s Supply
& Distribution, Strategy & Portfolio and Alternative Energies
businesses and is based in Singapore.
businesses in Downstream. He has worked in regional and local
HR roles in Shell, Coca-Cola and Marico. Manojit is a graduate
from TISS, Mumbai.
Prior to this Manojit has been the Global HR Manager
for Marine and the Global Talent Manager for Shell’s B2B
Manojit is an investor in The HR Fund.
Sonali Roychowdhury
Sonali Roychowdhury heads Human Resources for the Indian
operations of US Multinational, Procter and Gamble.
She is an alumni of XLRI Jamshedpur, and has 15 years of
experience across P&G businesses having lived and worked
in India, Singapore and Vietnam. Sonali has built expertise
in Organization Design, Leadership and Talent Development,
Change Management, Employee Relations , Strategic Business
Account Partnership, Diversity & Inclusion, and building high
performance teams. Sonali is based in Mumbai.
Sonali is an investor in The HR Fund.
13. EXECUTIVE
MANAGEMENT TEAM
Sumer Datta - Director
Sumer Datta is the founder of Aamoksh Leisure Living, a
company that is foraying into setting up retirement resorts in
India to cater to the growing need for elder care. Till July 2007,
Sumer was with Hewitt Associates India Pvt. Ltd., where he
was heading the outsourcing business for Hewitt in the AsiaPacific region. Prior to that, he was the Country Manager for
Hewitt’s India operations. He was also part of the Asia Pacific
Leadership Team, with responsibility for driving the strategic
business direction of Hewitt in the region. He has more than 19
years of experience in Consulting and Business Management.
Sumer is a postgraduate in business management, with a
specialization in finance.
Varun Talwar - CEO
Varun Talwar is founder of Withya Group. He is a serial
entrepreneur and has established companies in HR, IT, Digital
Media and Real Estate. His strengths are strategy, business
development and investor relations. He has multi-country
experience in Fortune 500 companies like AT&T, HP/EDS, and
TCS. He has B Tech Computers degree from PEC, Chandigarh
and has taken MBA courses from George Washington
University.
Utkarsh Joshi - Principal
Utkarsh is an investment professional with advisory, strategy
& planning experience across sectors. Prior to this, Utkarsh
was involved with providing boutique strategy, finance and
operations advisory services for close to four years. Before
that, he has worked with global majors Cognizant Business
Consulting and Accenture Services. Utkarsh holds a Bachelor of
Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology and an MBA
from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.
Amaresh Gautam - Analyst
Amaresh has close to three years of experience in advisory
and consulting roles. His strengths are business strategy and
investment analysis.
Amaresh has worked in projects across sectors such as IT,
Training and Education. He is an IIT graduate with an MBA in
Finance from MDI Gurgaon.
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18. PEOPLESTRONG
CASE STUDY
PeopleStrong is one of the leading HR solution providers in India offering
HR Shared Services, HR Consulting, Payroll Management and Recruitment
solutions. It was founded in 2006 and employs more than 400 people in 5
locations- Gurgaon, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.
US – Strategic partners
Jan ‘12
In its next growth phase, PeopleStrong is looking forward to productize its
services and expand in scope and scale, within India and internationally.
Delivery Centers at
5 locations in India
As its Anchor Investor, The HR Fund Incubated PeopleStrong in its early
phase and invested in it in 2006. Over the years, as a board member,
it continues to provided logistical and strategic support and guidance.
May ‘11
P.E. Investment
Jan ‘10
Signed 1st Comprehensive RPO Deal
Mar ‘09
Expanded Footprint in South East Asia
July 08’
Rated in 5 Best
Start-ups by Baring
Apr ‘06
1st Major Client Acquisition
UK – Strategic
partners
June‘11
Acquisition of Summit
HR Frontline Business
Jan ‘11
Best Company to Work- Survey 2010
Oct ‘09
Signed million dollar HR
Shared Services contract
July ’08
Rated among
Emerging
RPO leader
Apr ‘07
May‘12
PEOPLESTRONG
GROWTH MILESTONES
