Scooter, a Pune-based startup that helps companies hire sales professionals, has raised Rs 1.5 crore in a pre-seed round led by AJVC, the pre-seed fund run by Aviral Bhatnagar. It is AJVC's first investment in a Pune-based startup.
The company will use the money to build out its product and simplify sales hiring for both candidates and hiring managers.
Kartik Mandrekar and Saumya Seth founded Scooter in 2024. Mandrekar has led sales teams at Gartner, Shoptimize and Graas, and Seth is a behavioural scientist with a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Scooter assesses candidates on real sales scenarios instead of relying mainly on CVs. The platform sources verified sales professionals, runs them through those scenarios and gives hiring managers a shortlist of three to five candidates. Managers can watch short video clips from the assessments before they look at a CV. One customer has made a sales hire through Scooter in six days.
The startup works with more than 50 companies, 14 of them added in recent months, and has built a pool of over 10,000 sales candidates.
For more on sales, AI and marketing technology, visit SalesGarners