AuthBridge Research Services Pvt. Ltd. – a 13-year-old Indian firm announced the acquisition of Footprints Collateral Services Pvt. Ltd. from Bangalore and with this has gone on to become the largest Indian Company offering Employee Background Screening Solutions.  

This acquisition marks the biggest deal in an emerging and much-desired industry of Background Screening in India, which currently serves only 5-7% of the potential market, which is estimated to be over a billion dollars in market size.

Given the changing socio-economic dynamics in a country like India, the demand for Employee background Verification Services has witnessed a steady increase across industries and cities and is being demanded and asked for from lowest rung of the employee chain - at driver/delivery boys level to mid-level and going right up to Top level management.  However, there is still a huge demand-supply gap that exists, largely due to the fact that most of the market in India is served by an unorganized segment who have little or no technology enablement, as data collected also needs to be controlled and secured by the firms.  

Founder and CEO of AuthBridge, Ajay Trehan said, “India is changing and so are the employee-employer dynamics. Companies are operating in an evolved environment where brands and people’s reputation is extremely important and can be tarnished with the slightest misdeed of a single employee irrespective of the designation and thus, it becomes imperative and crucial for all companies and brands to ensure that the people who represent them are in sync with the company’s ethics, vision and comply to them.

When we started out 13 years back, employee screening was a niche concept and today we have a 30% market share of this emerging industry. Clients are at the core of our growth and acquiring Footprints has given us a strategic advantage as it brings with it a highly proficient team, delivery locations and a set of clients which complements our current portfolio and increases our client portfolio to 1000 + across the country.”

Sharing his future goals, he said, “This acquisition is a part of our long-term growth strategy of investing in service, scale and technology to become the trust-enabler for the Indian Economy. We believe trust is the real currency driving progress. Just as payment-infrastructure enables transactions, trust-infrastructure enables collaborative interactions and helps business eco-systems to grow. We are building the Trust-Infrastructure for India with our databases, technology, network, customer relationships and scale. We continue to scout for more complementing businesses that can strengthen our capabilities. We will continue to deliver superior financial performance, invest in newer technologies in our chosen areas and set new standards of customer service.” 

Col Vijay Reddy, Director & Founder of Footprints said, “As a competitor, we had always admired AuthBridge for its processes. It is just the right kind of organization that could have done justice to our clients and employees. This deal ensures that Footprints’ clients stand to gain hugely from AuthBridge’s industry-leading tech-enablement.”