The startup plans to use the fresh capital to strengthen its product and make the sales hiring process more efficient for both candidates and hiring managers.

Founded in 2024 by Kartik Mandrekar and Saumya Seth, Scooter is building a hiring platform focused specifically on sales roles. Instead of relying primarily on resumes, the startup assesses candidates through real-world sales scenarios to help companies evaluate how they perform in situations closer to the job itself.

Scooter sources verified sales professionals, puts them through its assessment process and then presents hiring managers with a shortlist of three to five candidates. Managers can first review short video clips from the assessments before going through a candidate’s CV, giving them an early view of how the person approaches sales situations.

The startup says one of its customers has completed a sales hire through the platform in six days.

Scooter currently works with more than 50 companies and has added 14 customers in recent months. Its candidate pool has also grown to more than 10,000 sales professionals.

The founders bring complementary experience to the business. Mandrekar has previously led sales teams at Gartner, Shoptimize and Graas, while Seth is a behavioural scientist with a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

For startups, sales hiring can be particularly time-consuming, with recruiters and hiring managers often having to sift through large candidate pools before reaching a meaningful shortlist. Scooter is attempting to narrow that process by putting greater emphasis on demonstrated sales ability rather than CVs alone.

The investment also marks AJVC’s first investment in a Pune-based startup. Led by Aviral Bhatnagar, the pre-seed fund backs early-stage companies.

With the new funding, Scooter will focus on developing its product further and reducing the time startups spend sourcing and evaluating sales talent.