XpressJobs acquires Emerging Media subsidiary MyJobs.lk

Leading recruitment platform XpressJobs has acquired MyJobs.lk and is now united as one company, marking a significant turning point in the recruitment platforms in Sri Lanka. The acquisition has effectively made XpressJobs one of the biggest players in the online recruitment field.

The merger has an interesting and uplifting backstory. Somewhere in 2018, Dr. Oshadie Korale, COO of XpressJobs picks up the phone almost on a whim and invites Sanjeewa Rajapakshe, CEO of Emerging Media (parent company of MyJobs.lk) and his team for coffee and a discussion. XpressJobs had been enjoying a 60% growth rate at the time, and its innovative approaches with recruitment tech – introducing smart filtering, CV-less recruitment, Application tracking system, Statistic Dashboard, online testing, branch recruitment, etc., – had marked it out as a trendsetter in the market. The coffee meeting ends on a positive note with discussions started on an Angel investment, which comes to fruition in 2020 with Emerging Media investing 100 million LKR for a 25% stake in XpressJobs.

Partnering up

At the time of discussions in 2018, both XpressJobs and MyJobs.lk had two different market shares. While MyJobs.lk, started in 2014 was focused on filling shopfloor and industrial positions with a simpler setup, XpressJobs, started in late 2015 was focused on developing home-grown recruitment technology such as aforementioned smart filtering, CV-less recruitment, etc., catering to a more selective range of mostly white collar jobs. 

In 2017, MyJobs.lk entered into a partnership with Mobitel, functioning as a Value-Added Service for Mobitel’s vast customer base. The partnership enabled MyJobs.lk to market its brand for this database. Powered by Mobitel, the brand identity of MyJobs.lk took on a stronger dimension. Post-2018, the economic climate that led to the decline of many businesses starting with the Easter attacks and COVID 1st and 2nd waves, did not present a challenge for XpressJobs as built into its platform were all of the recruitment tech necessary to ride the massive waves of the ‘new norm’.

As working from home became the most if only viable option left for many companies, and remote work and recruitment became the mainstay of businesses, the already existing features such as filtering based on vaccination status, paperless hiring that enabled HR in remote shortlisting candidates, etc ensured XpressJobs’ dominance in the market and enabled it to have a higher market share compared to old school competitors. 

In 2020, XpressJobs requested to absorb the MyJobs.lk brand but it was answered with a “No” as Emerging Media felt strongly that there was space in the market for both brands. They do come into an agreement of allowing the best performer a takeover in the future. Thus the friendly rivalry between the two companies continues.

Looking to the future

In 2022, with a year-on-year growth rate of 115% and the financial backing of the LKR100 million investment, it was evident that XpressJobs is in optimum performance. Therefore it became an obvious strategic next step for XpressJobs to acquire MyJobs.lk and combine the resources to increase its market share in the country.

With the takeover, the company now has a massive merged CV database of 520,000 serving over 6600 local and international clients. It has processed over 2.5 million applications to date. Commenting on the acquisition, Dr. Korale mentions, “We’re very much open to learning from our competitors. We’re open to adapting, evolving, and innovating. It is crucial to stay current in this market.” The users and clients of both platforms now enjoy the vast benefits of their combined resources, steered by XpressJobs.