X0PA’s $4.2M Game-Changer: Bias-Free Hiring and Beyond

Join CEO Nina Alag Suri as she delves into the trends driving HRTech’s boom post-COVID, the strategy behind X0PA’s $4.2M series A funding, and their revolutionary product roadmap focused on removing bias from hiring. Discover their ambitious market expansion plans, placing a bullish bet on Asia while making strategic moves into the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and soon, the U.S. Don’t miss this episode reshaping the landscape of HR innovation!

Discussion Topics: X0PA’s $4.2M Game-Changer

• Key trends driving the accelerated adoption of HRTech
• Series A funding round of $4.2 mn
• Where are the funds being invested in?
• What’s next in the product roadmap for X0PA AI?
• What’s the market expansion plan for X0PA AI?

Transcript: X0PA’s $4.2M Game-Changer

Nina Alag Suri: Thanks for having me, Sriram. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.

Key trends driving the accelerated adoption of HRTech

Nina Alag Suri: I think number one, the biggest accelerator has been COVID. As we know, digital transformation has been accelerated for three to five years. Thanks to COVID. So, I think that’s one big accelerator. Remote working, the great resignation, and everything that we read about are contributing to digital transformation.

So, all of these trends, I would say the workforce management, working remotely, working from anywhere, people trying to find meaningful work and managing it with their personal lives. And really the big problem of great resignation, which comes with great hiring, right? Like, so all of this is accelerating, really helping. Platforms like us are helping our clients to cope with all of these changes.

Could you please share more information about your recent series A funding round of $4.2 mn?

Nina Alag Suri: Sure, so we closed our series A and there were a couple of things that we were really keen on in our fundraise. It wasn’t purely about raising the finances. It was also about bringing in the right investors. And also a global set of investors so that it gives us a global trajectory.

So, we’ve got a fantastic set of investors who’ve come in. We’ve got ICCP, which is a Philippines, Japanese fund so really excited about getting them over. We’ve got ExcelNext from Taiwan. We’ve got AI8 ventures from San Francisco and we have Enterprise Singapore from our home ground in Singapore and we have SASV who are very strong in the APAC as well as Australia market.

So. It’s taken us a while to make sure that we get a global set of diverse investors and we’re so delighted. I think one thing that we were also very keen on was the meeting of minds on the trajectory for X0pa. One of the big USPs for X0paZopa is about removing bias from hiring and making it a very objective process.All of these investors were completely on board with that. And I think we are truly delighted with the set of investors who’ve come in.

Where are the funds being invested in?

Nina Alag Suri: A lot of it, I would say 60 percent of it is in our go to market. Interestingly, we had a very skeletal sales and marketing team prior to this. So we’re really going after global expansion. We are building, we are investing in our sales team, our marketing team. We are launching our massive partner program which is a global partner program and really bringing on board partners like the consulting companies, system integrators and so on.

And then of course AI, which is absolutely the heart of our product. Really more innovation bringing in all of that. So I would say 60 percent in go-to market and 40 percent in innovation in R&D.

What’s next in the product roadmap for X0PA AI?

Nina Alag Suri: Yeah, I mean, one of the big things that we are committed to is removing bias from hiring and selections. And we will continue to do a lot of work in that space. We are also in the thought leadership and in the go in, in the working committee with IMDA working with Meta, With Facebook and with a few other leading companies on creating explainable AI. So our commitment to ethical and explainable AI continues our commitment to removing bias and really promoting diversity, inclusion and hiring. And I think that whole mantra of ours, which iscreen people in don’t screen people out” is what we are really committed to. So I feel this is going to lead to more talent pools. This is going to open up more options for the people who get overlooked and in. In turn also make sure that the clients get access to diversified talent. So, we continue to innovate in that space.

What’s the market expansion plan for X0PA AI?

Nina Alag Suri: Oh, we are absolutely bullish on the Asian market. I mean, that’s the market we bet on. We are headquartered in Singapore and our biggest market continues to be Asia. It’s interesting that you say that Asia is lagging behind. I think they’re lagging behind more so in communicating, but not in their practice.

It is a pretty solid agenda and there’s a huge amount of focus on d and I here as well. So it probably might be that in their communication it’s not so strong, it doesn’t come out that strong, but under the hood the governments are very committed to D&I  hiring. They are an agenda not just in Singapore, but in the larger Asia-Pac Market, India. And I hope ell, we will be one of those Asian companies who drive this agenda and take it.

But no, to answer your question, the trajectory is very large in APAC, but you know, we are a SAAS company, so it shouldn’t stop us from going anywhere else. I think we’ll continue to innovate in Asia big time. However, there are markets that we are growing into. So, we’ve got a fair amount of traction in the Middle East and  Africa.

We are doing a lot of work in Europe. And, we’ve got an investor from San Francisco. So, we are very soon going to look at expanding into the U. S. market as well. So, but again, we have to bite small bites and make sure that we chew them well. So, we don’t want to boil the ocean and make sure that whatever we do it well.

Our Guest: Nina Alag Suri

An entrepreneur for 21 years a  geek at heart and an entrepreneur by choice! Electronics Engineering professional started my career in Sales and Marketing with ICIM ( ICL) in India and then became an entrepreneur in 1997 with the launch of Nastrac Group, a global executive search firm. One exit, a management buyout, two acquisitions and one M&A are some of the rich experiences through my entrepreneurship journey. Founded X0PA AI in 2017 to disrupt our own traditional search business and pivot to a SAAS based AI, ML platform in 2017 to form X0PA AI.