AI for All: How AlmaBay Is Redefining Campus Placements in India

AI for All: How AlmaBay Is Redefining Campus Placements in India

Published by IndiaStory | Edited by P. Barman

Securing meaningful employment after graduation remains a daunting challenge for many students, especially those from rural and Tier II/Tier III institutions. AlmaBay, a Chandigarh-based edtech startup, is working to solve this problem by leveraging AI to bridge the gap between education and employment across India.

Founded in 2016 and incorporated in 2021, AlmaBay started as a platform for alumni engagement but soon pivoted to address the placement crisis that plagues much of India’s higher education system.

The Inspiration Behind AlmaBay

Vishal Sood, the founder of AlmaBay and former CEO of Maharishi Markandeshwar Group, experienced the challenge first-hand. Located in Ambala, his institution found it difficult to attract recruiters from major industrial hubs.

“It was tough for corporates to visit us, and equally difficult for us to reach them,” Sood recalls. This led to the creation of PlaceCom, AlmaBay’s flagship AI-based platform for campus placements.

Democratising Career Growth

PlaceCom is designed to be more than a job board—it's a full-fledged AI-driven recruitment ecosystem. Its mission: to democratise career growth for students across Bharat and India.

With over 30 client contracts and a network that spans 500+ institutions, PlaceCom offers colleges an end-to-end solution—student preparation, mentorship, AI assessments, and employer connections—all in one platform.

Tech That Understands Context

The platform combines AI-powered applicant tracking systems, a custom assessment engine, and multilingual preparation tools. What sets PlaceCom apart is its ability to deliver training and interview prep in regional languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, and Tamil, with Bahasa Indonesia and Armenian under pilot testing.

The system evaluates candidates on multiple fronts—language, articulation, posture, and soft skills—and offers feedback tailored to each individual’s background and career goals.

“English shouldn’t be a barrier to someone’s career,” says Sood. “Students should be able to prepare in their language and their context.”

Tangible Impact

PlaceCom’s first success came with Khalsa College, Patiala, where placements jumped from 40 to over 500 students after implementation. Major institutions like NIT Delhi, DAV University, and Himachal Pradesh Technical University have since come on board, with the latter acquiring 20,000 user licenses.

The platform uses a blend of large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and in-house algorithms to generate context-aware prep materials. It tailors the experience to distinguish between a fresher and an experienced candidate, offering hyper-personalized insights.

Accessible and Affordable

For colleges, PlaceCom is priced between ₹500–₹900 per student license, depending on scale. Recruiters can access AI-based assessments for ₹299 per candidate, while the ATS, job listings, and branding tools are offered for free.

Adoption took time. Placement officers unfamiliar with tech tools needed onboarding and support. But once institutions completed their first few cycles, retention rates soared.

PlaceCom’s newly launched mobile app has already crossed 1,000 downloads with an impressive 4.95 rating on Google Play.

Competing with Giants, Focusing on Impact

Although players like LinkedIn dominate the global hiring ecosystem, PlaceCom offers a focused alternative. “LinkedIn is a networking platform first,” says Sood. “We built PlaceCom to be a placement ecosystem from day one.”

The platform simplifies hiring, especially for startups and MSMEs, by automating early interview rounds, reducing hiring time, and improving candidate discovery—all at minimal cost.

Growth, Funding, and the Road Ahead

AlmaBay reported ₹3 crore revenue in FY25 and has raised $2 million so far, backed by US-based investor Bobby Kang. A new $5 million funding round is underway to support its next growth phase.

Expansion plans include Southeast Asia, starting with a partner in Jakarta, followed by moves into the Middle East and North America. The team currently has 35 employees and is expanding through a channel partner model, leveraging former HR professionals and placement officers to grow its footprint.

The startup aims to scale to 500 channel partners over the next two years.

A Market Waiting to Be Transformed

With 2.5 million students graduating each year in India alone, the campus placement space remains ripe for disruption. AlmaBay plans to expand PlaceCom’s offerings beyond freshers, catering to experienced professionals, job switchers, and the blue-collar and diploma workforce.

PlaceCom also supports compliance with new UGC regulations, helping institutes track and report placement metrics like average salaries, offer rates, and startup ventures.

“We don’t want to be everything for everyone,” says Sood. “Our goal is to give every student in India a fair shot at a meaningful career.”

Final Thoughts

As automation reshapes industries and competition grows fiercer, tools like PlaceCom are not just useful—they’re essential. AlmaBay’s vision is bold but grounded: build a more equitable hiring ecosystem where geography, language, or economic background doesn’t define a student’s career trajectory.