Engineering startups in India

Sreeradha D Basu & Devina Sengupta, ET Bureau

(Ten startups that ET spoke…)

MUMBAI: Flush with funds and hungry for growth, a bunch of startups is gearing up to stake claim on talent at India's top campuses.

As placements unfold over the next few months at the IITs, IIMs and other institutes, these startups look on track to give traditional heavyweights a run for their money in the battle for talent.

Ten startups that ET spoke to are collectively looking to hire more than 850 graduates across leading business schools, engineering colleges and graduate schools this fiscal.

From established names such as Flipkart, TaxiForSure and Olacabs to campus newbies like Vizury and CodeNation, almost all are hiring in greater numbers than before, armed with attractive pay packages and the promise of greater responsibilities and faster growth for potential hires.

Barely six months after being registered as a company, enterprise software developer CodeNation is already one of the most coveted recruiters at engineering campuses such as National Institutes of Technology (NITs), offering salaries of Rs 24 lakh. One of the last to go to the campuses last season, it hired 12 engineering graduates in March 2014.

This time, it plans to net the best early on from the IITs, NITs, IIITs (Indian Institutes of Information Technology), DTU (Delhi Technological University) and PESIT (PES Institute of Technology). "We went to campuses very late (last time), but do not want to do the same this time. We plan to hire 50 students from the best colleges, " said Anuja Sivaram, head of operations at CodeNation.

Another relatively new name is Bangalore-based big data analytics startup Vizury. Last year, it went to two BITS Pilani University campuses with seven offers. The startup, which in June saw a third round of funding totaling million from new and existing investors, is planning to recruit more this year. "We plan to hire 25-30 engineers from IITs, BITS Pilani University, NITs and IIIT campuses for our product engineering team. Students will be working on cuttingedge analytics and advertising technology platforms, " said Subra Krishnan, vice-president in charge of products.

Taxi-service startup Olacabs, fresh after raising Rs 250 crore last month, is on an expansion mode.

To drive its growth plans, the company is in the market for 100 new hires from IITs and IIMs, compared with 40 it recruited last year, said co-founder and Chief Executive Bhavish Aggarwal.

Rival TaxiForSure, on its part, is heading to engineering campuses for the first time this year. Until now the company hired engineers laterally. "We will head to IIT-Madras and IIT-Bombay for the first time. Now we have five engineering managers who can train the new recruits and therefore there is sufficient leadership to hire from engineering campuses, " said human resources head TN Hari.

While it hasn't decided on the number of engineering students to be recruited, the startup will hire 25 from IIMs in Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Lucknow as well as the Indian School of Business.