New Delhi, Sep 18 (IANS): Over 500 people who were sacked by food delivery platform Zomato earlier this month have a saviour in Medikabazaar - an online B2B platform for medical supplies.

According to Medikabazaar's Executive Vice-President Akash Rajpal, the company wants to ramp up its team by an additional 500 staff in various positions.

"We can immediately look at hiring 200 former staff from Zomato in relevant positions of customer care, inside sales and operations," Rajpal said in a statement.

Zomato on September 7 said it has laid off 541 people -- 10 per cent of the company's strength -- across customer, merchant and delivery partner support teams.

The reason behind the move, said the company, is an improved Zomato platform with Artificial Intelligence (AI)-driven bots and automation in resolving customer queries that has led to an overall reduction in direct order-related support queries.

"Other positions that the company is looking to ramp up is in technology," Rajpal added.

According to Medikabazaar's HR Head Anil Mohanty, any giant leap towards progress will inevitably lead some people to fall through the cracks. We at Medikazaar want to ensure that these people get back on their feet, and are happy to offer the open positions at our company to deserving candidates".

Zomato said in its statement: "While this has been a painful decision, to make the transition smoother, we have extended between two-month months severance pay (based on tenure), family health insurance cover (till the end of January 2020) and career fair opportunities with companies".

According to Mohanty, "This is an exciting opportunity for driven individuals to be part of the company's journey towards facilitating a democratised and cost-optimised standard of healthcare pan-India".