Christopher Raju: The tide turner

Christopher Raju hails from a small town, Belgaum, in Karnataka and is proud of his hometown for all the wonderful things it brings in terms of great food, large educational hubs, pleasant weather and smart people.

Raju has worked in the corporate sector for over 15 years with large brands like Infosys, HP and ICI Paints before being consumed by the entrepreneurial bug. Even though Raju was inclined towards entrepreneurship, it wasn’t an easy decision. “Leaving a big brand, comfortable life-style, steady income and plunging into an unknown area was scary,” he says.

Raju built the first lowcost hub-and-spoke BPO in Bengaluru. Four years later, he started PeopleWorld, an award winning sourcing and staffing company. It later merged with Apar Group, a multibillion dollar global business conglomerate.

The next venture he started is Otomeyt which again is part of the Apar entity. Otomeyt is headquartered in Singapore. It aims to disrupt the complete IT and ITES talent acquisition landscape through its comprehensive AI-enabled Talent Acquisition (TA) Suite. Otomeyt products are all SaaS based, easily scalable and can also sit on top of existing recruitment software, thereby enabling a complete digitalisation of the TA landscape. One of its marquee products is Oto-Code, an AI-based technical assessment platform which helps organisations make the right hiring decisions by evaluating desired technical skills and looking beyond traditional input and output test cases through GCVS(Global Code Verification System).

Another version is Oto-QC, a non-technical assessment platform that can be used across all industries for talent assessment. Another major product is Oto-Mojo, AI sourcing bots which solve the legacy data, sourcing and scheduling needs of TA groups. The series of bots consume the existing data, stack ranks it as per the skills, source the profiles from passive and active pools of data and even work on scheduling the tests and interviews.

Then there's Oto-Catalyst, an intelligent and comprehensive applicant tracking system which helps clients streamline the entire process of candidate engagement—from application and evaluation to qualification, selection and on-boarding. Says Raju, “What sets Otomeyt apart is that we understand the pain in managing a vast range of TA solutions as most of them work in bits and pieces rather than solving the problem statement from start to end. All our products seamlessly integrate with legacy systems, thereby empowering a complete transformation around People, Process & Technology.” Client servicing is another key factor which dictates client retention and adoption. With a global presence and ability to serve clients locally, Otomeyt is committed to help organisations in their HR transformation journey.

Recently, Chris launched the 'HumanWorld Foundation' through which he engage in philanthropy work for social betterment. The foundation aims to address key social issues such as education, training, health, environment and sports. He comments, “There is no bigger satisfaction than giving back to society.”

Raju believes that it’s his never say die attitude that makes him unique. When you’re an entrepreneur, you can’t give up no matter how challenging things get. If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t “Big enough”, so keep the chase smart.

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