India-based HR services investment platform FirstMeridian Business Services announced that it has completed its acquisition of RLabs, an IT staffing and consulting firm.

RLabs is also based in India and has over 1,200 technology professionals deployed across its clientele in over 40 locations in India.

This marks the sixth acquisition by the FirstMeridian Group since it was founded in mid-2018 when Goldman Sachs, Samara Capital and Janchor Partners backed the HR platform.

FirstMeridian has acquired HR solution providers Innovsource, V5 Global, Affluent Global, Cornucopia, CBSI and RLabs, with a combined headcount of approximately 110,000 associates, serving 1,100 plus clients spread across 3,500 locations throughout the country.

"RLabs is our third acquisition in the IT Staffing space over the last three years,” Sudhakar Balakrishnan, Group CEO, FirstMeridian, said. “All these businesses have built their niches in the technology space, and we believe they complement each other under the overall FirstMeridian Technology Staffing landscape. Each of these businesses shall be independently managed, hereby realising scaling effects quickly while maintaining flexibility to expand. This acquisition of RLabs enables us to effectively support our customers in their growth as trusted partner for their technology personnel.”

Anurag Gupta, president, IT Staffing, FirstMeridian added that the tech staffing business has evolved globally in the last 2-3 years and is now pivoting to providing talent with multiple skill combinations in emerging technologies through contracting and managed services models.

"At the FirstMeridian Tech Staffing division, we have been investing in companies that will help us scale in this space,” Gupta said. “RLabs is one such renowned enabler with credible reputation among its marquee global clients, bringing in its deep tech knowhow of SAP stack and emerging technologies, and a very seasoned management team. RLabs will further strengthen our abilities to setup and manage Offshore Delivery Centres (ODCs) for our global clients besides providing traditional IT Staffing.”