oi, a Singapore-based social networking and talent matching platform for engineers, has raised $1 million in a pre-seed round sponsored by January Capital, a local venture capital company.
Goodwater Capital, SonTech Ventures, Mohammed Alabsi (former Bukalapak SVP of engineering), Pritesh Gupta (former co-founder of Zipgo), and Nikhil Lalwani are among the co-investors (president and CEO of ANI Pharmaceuticals).
The money will be used by oi to grow its worldwide staff. In the next two years, it wants to attract 2 million users across Asia and beyond, starting with technical talent hotbeds like Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
The company’s flagship app is now available for iPhone and Android. It will roll out blockchain-based gamified e-learning and community-building tools to boost user engagement over time.
Sakshi Jawa (CEO) and Rob Creekmore (CPO and CTO) launched oi in 2021. Both have substantial experience as high-level executives with e-commerce companies such as Amazon, Coupang, and Tiki.
oi, a company for engineers, bills itself as a work-and-play social network. It bridges the gap between traditional social networks and communities by assisting engineers in all parts of their professions, including job search, e-learning, mentorship, career development, and having fun with mutual interests.
The startup connects worldwide engineers with employers and acts as a personalised job search engine.
The firm claims to have established direct relationships with more than 50 local enterprises, emphasising the need of addressing the engineer shortage in Vietnam first. It has also named Phuc Truong, a former top executive, as COO.
With a queue of over 20,000 engineers, the business claims of offering hundreds of positions in Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Indonesia in less than a month.
“Our vision goes beyond just startup oi. We want to connect engineers around the world to foster innovation at a global level,” said Jawa.
The firm has so far established itself in Vietnam, Indonesia, and India.
According to US Labor Department figures, the global talent deficit amounted to 40 million developers as of December 2020, with the number predicted to rise to 85.2 million by 2030. Companies throughout the world are in danger of losing $8.4 trillion in revenue due to a shortage of educated workers, creating opportunities for new solutions in edutech and HR tech.
According to research from Vietnam’s IT recruiting site TopDev, there is a lack of 500,000 IT employees in the country, particularly high-skilled engineers.
