Vahan.ai raises strategic funding from LemmaTree, acquires skilling platform L.earn

Vahan.ai, an artificial intelligence-driven recruitment platform for blue-collar workers, has announced a strategic investment from LemmaTree, a Temasek-founded investment firm.

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The funding comes as part of a two-pronged partnership that also includes the acquisition of L.earn, the digital upskilling platform of GoodWorker, another LemmaTree-backed entity.

The deal marks a pivotal expansion for the Bengaluru-based HR tech startup, positioning it to deepen its AI capabilities while embedding modular skilling pathways into its hiring process.

Founded by Madhav Krishna, Vahan.ai emerged from Y Combinator and initially offered skilling services before entering the recruitment space in 2019. Its AI-powered platform connects blue-collar and gig workers with employers across industries such as logistics, delivery, and retail.

Last year, the startup raised $10 million (or about Rs 83 crore) in a Series B funding round led by billionaire Vinod Khosla's Khosla Ventures.

According to Traxcn data, Vahan.ai reported a revenue of Rs 26.9 crore ($3.25 million) in FY24. The company currently facilitates 40,000 job placements per month and claims to have placed over 1 million workers across more than 920 Indian cities. Key employer partners include Zepto, Swiggy, Blinkit, and Zomato.

Krishna told Fortune India that the LemmaTree investment will be used to enhance Vahan’s core technology stack, particularly its AI bot’s multilingual capabilities in eight Indian languages and to scale its documentation automation features. These upgrades are expected to help the company achieve its near-term goal of enabling 100,000 placements per month.

"The AI recruiter can triple productivity," Krishna said. "If a human recruiter were hiring one person a day, they're able to do three a day if they use AI; that three will perhaps become more, as the AI becomes better."

The acquisition of L.earn will integrate vernacular, mobile-first skilling content directly into the job discovery process, offering workers a pathway to better-paying roles.

With this expansion, Vahan.ai is targeting new verticals such as warehousing, manufacturing, and commercial driving. The startup also plans to deepen its reach in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and pursue international markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), leveraging LemmaTree’s regional presence.