Persol Holdings announced it will invest in Qikwork Services Private Limited which operates the Smartstaff blue-collar staffing platform based in India.

The investment was made via Persol Venture Partners (formerly the Persol Innovation Fund), which leads the group in investment to create new businesses and services through open innovation.

Smartstaff is focused on India’s manufacturing industry. Over the past two years, Smartstaff has successfully recruited, trained, and employed 11,000 workers across 50 different manufacturers. Through their platform, they have facilitated 3 million shifts, resulting in workers collectively earning over INR 1 billion in wages.

Shingo Ishida, Partner and Head of APAC, Persol Venture Partners, said, “Smartstaff’s focus on building a full stack innovative model, proprietary technology and inroads into the Indian market has led us to back them. The team comes with strong backgrounds in building companies to scale. At Persol we are excited to work together with Smartstaff to become a prominent leader in the blue-collar staffing solutions space in India.”

Arpit Dave, co-founder & CEO, Smartstaff, said, “Persol Group has considerable experience in the staffing solutions space, and we are delighted to have their support in offering cutting edge solutions to the industry in India. We are looking forward to creating a much bigger impact on a nation-wide scale in India.”