BetterPlace, an India-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform for frontline workforce management, announced the acquisition of TROOPERS, Malaysia’s flexi talent solutions technology player.
BetterPlace’s acquisition of TROOPERS will strengthen its presence in Southeast Asia and expedite the firm’s presence there, according to a statement from the company.
BetterPlace’s comprehensive SaaS platform will integrate TROOPERS’ automated gig matching and rostering features through the acquisition.
Joshua Tan and Kelvin Lee, the co-founders of TROOPERS, established it in 2017. As a flexi-talent solutions platform, TROOPERS offers businesses on-demand, pre-screened, part-time frontline workers so they can scale up their gig workforce to meet operational demands. TROOPERS claims that it has helped over 50,000 gig workers in Malaysia find jobs since its inception, with a machine learning algorithm achieving a 95% matching rate.
With the gig economy growing by 31% since 2017, exceeding the growth in the conventional workforce, Pravin Agarwala, Co-Founder and Group CEO of BetterPlace, said Southeast Asia would experience a significant growth in the demand for gig workers over the next five years. Only in Malaysia 84% of hiring managers prefer gig workers.
“We are pleased to offer a robust SaaS solution catering to the growing market demand. Our comprehensive SaaS platform and artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms, combined with TROOPERS’ innovative flexi-talent solutions, enables enterprises to effectively tackle challenges such as high attrition rates, escalating labour and management costs, and skilled workforce shortages. Concurrently, frontline workers can optimise their earning potential through TROOPERS’ proprietary gig matching algorithms,” Agarwala added.
According to Joshua Tan, Co-Founder and CEO of TROOPERS, the majority of Southeast Asia’s workforce ecosystem is informal, making it challenging for workers to find supplementary jobs or increase their earning potential. Additionally, employees lack the skills to meet the business’s growing requirements.
“Building on the principles of transparency, accountability, and legitimacy, we started TROOPERS to address talent shortage and workforce productivity for enterprises while creating better livelihoods for workers in Malaysia. We are eager to utilise BetterPlace’s technological prowess and industry knowledge to scale our offering, potentially transforming the landscape of frontline work in Southeast Asia,” Tan added.
The acquisition of TROOPERS is an integral part of BetterPlace’s strategy of expanding its presence in Southeast Asia. This move followed BetterPlace’s earlier foray into the region when it acquired MyRobin, Indonesia’s top platform for fulfilling blue-collar workers, in February 2023. This was BetterPlace’s initial entry into Southeast Asia.
