31st July 2025, Bengaluru: HerKey or www.herkey.com is a new company that focuses on rebuilding the career for women who have taken a break because of family commitments and who wish to restart their career journey. This platform is a one-stop destination for women who wish to further their careers by pursuing paths like online work from home for ladies.

Founded in March 2015 by seasoned professional, Neha Bagaria, the original company was called JobsForHer. This was created as a platform for women to restart their careers after a break. Bagaria renamed the company as HerKey, which evolved gradually to enable women to begin, restart and rise in their careers.
HerKey has thereafter grown by leaps and bounds. It claims to serve the needs of more than 3.5 million women. It has over 10,000 companies on its platform. The company has roped in more than 2000 mentors and 800 learning partners.

It was able to raise the first round of institutional funding of $4 million from Kalaari Capital, 360 ONE asset and a few angel investors. Angels include the likes of Puneet Dalmia, Zia Mody, Ranjan Pai, Pramit Jhaveri, Akash Bhansali and Neeraj Bajaj. The company enjoyed revenue of Rs. 8.87 crores and a profit of Rs. 2.6 crores in the financial year 2022.

Neha Bagaria has had an eventful career. She graduated from the prestigious Wharton School of Management in 2003. She launched the foreign education venture, Paragon, in May 2003, running it for 2 years.
In 2005, she joined Kemwell Bio-pharma to helm the reins of Marketing, Finance and HR in this company. But in 2010, she arrived at the crossroads. She took a break in January 2010 to become a full-time mother.

After following the path of raising a family, she restarted her career by joining Kemwell in 2013. Yet she was not satisfied with joining this family business after a break of 5 years. After 5 years, she was beginning from scratch, shunning the comfort of the family business.

Having experienced the issue regarding the rejoining of careers by women professionals, she rolled out a new and promising venture, JobsForHer, in March 2015. Though she feared that she might become a poor mother, she never doubted the success of this new venture.

Since family became a huge responsibility, she wondered what would happen with the success of the company. Yet this very same family became her beacon of hope. Bagaria’s brother encouraged her to take the plunge, her husband offered her full support to live her dream, and the whole family rallied around this farsighted entrepreneur.

Then came 2023, the year when, after 8 years of hard work, patience and a bootstrapped journey, Bagaria was able to raise institutional funding of $4 million. This amount was raised by a couple of angel investors and companies called Kalaari Capital and 360 ONE Asset.

JobsForHer underwent a great change and was rebranded as HerKey. This new name denoted a change in the positioning by emerging as a career-engagement platform for women. Yet, it is no longer confined to women returning to the job market.

Today, HerKey caters to over 3.5 million women, features over 10,000 companies on the platform and has roped in more than 800 learning partners and 2000 mentors. As per Tofler, the company had operating revenue of Rs. 8.87 crore and a profit of 2.6 crores in the financial year 2022.

Bagaria explains why she waited for 8 years to solicit venture capital. In the initial years, she had to swim against the tide, referring to a slew of obstacles that hampered the scale and growth of the women returnee market in India.

But things underwent a radical change during the COVID-19 pandemic. It changed headwinds to tailwinds. HerKey became a frontrunner. Flexibility and work-life balance were no longer bad words. Thus, HerKey has been successful in attracting investors.

These backers now recognise the huge opportunities entailed by the company. There are millions of women in India who drop out of work to raise families and face insurmountable barriers while trying to restart their careers.

For many decades, flexibility has been a bad word in corporate circles. There was no scope for a hybrid or work-at-home culture. But the Pandemic has changed all that.

Though women need support and flexibility to enable their unique career journey, their efforts are now complemented by the new recognition of work from home and hybrid arrangements. Thus, there has been a need for a platform that offers them ways to learn, network and exploit career opportunities.

Currently, more than 10,000 companies are using the services of HerKey to construct an inclusive and diverse workforce. Since India features a very low rate of participation of women in the workforce of only 20%, the scope of platforms like HerKey is immense.

From 2015 to 2019, HerKey focused most on women returning to their careers after a break. In this period, while some companies had launched special returnee programs, the concept still faced challenges.
There was a need to change the whole mindset and look beyond getting women back in the workforce. Women need to stay and rise in the workplace. With a credo of ‘Start, Restart, Rise’, the company tries to work in this direction.

Currently, HerKey focuses on 3 pillars: Community, Learning and Opportunities. They help create a more equitable and inclusive workforce that benefits everyone. It is a top career engagement platform for female workers.

HerKey is today India’s biggest AI-powered platform for unlocking women’s aspirations for work-life balance. In India, it is not easy to be a woman who wishes to build a career. There are many challenges and few opportunities. HerKey is all set to change that.

HerKey seeks to be the reliable companion for all women on their career journey, powering their growth, throwing open opportunities, creating relevant engagement and helping their career journey, upwards and onwards.

The reality is that the corporate world in India faces a leaky pipeline of talent. It begins with 26% of women at the entry level, dropping to 13% at the senior level and 10% at the level of CEOs. HerKey aims to change this scenario.

Through HerKey, companies are able to hire, retain and promote women workers by offering the needed opportunities. They help build career engagement for women so that they can be a part of their journey of career growth.

About The Company: HerKey or www.herkey.com is a company that supports women returning to their careers after a break, mostly to raise their families. HerKey caters to over 3.5 million women, features over 10,000 companies on the platform and has roped in more than 800 learning partners and 2000 mentors.