Sourcing as a profession has come a long way. From researching names in phone books, print patent directories, and "phone-treeing" corporate directories, to automated tools powered by machine learning - the journey has been fascinating. And, as it turns out: rewarding.

SeekOut, one of the leading tools in the modern sourcers kit has announced a successful series B fundraising round led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group and Mayfield. This capital raise brings SeekOut’s total funding to $73 million and reflects 10X growth in the 21 months since the company's Series A round. This funding round values SeekOut at close to half a billion dollars (or, half a unicorn).

The company attributes their hyper-growth to a focus on empowering talent acquisition teams to recruit hard-to-find and diverse talent. The company is consistently received high scores and strong reviews in analyst and customer assessments. This recognition comes as top companies across key industries from technology to pharmaceutical to aerospace and banking – have adopted SeekOut. 6 out of the 10 most highly valued companies in the US rely on SeekOut for their talent needs. The companies marquee clients include SalesForce, Merck, Twitter among others. According to Steve Levy, Technical Sourcing Lead for M&T Bank: “SeekOut is one of the most important sourcing platforms on the market.”

"From day one, SeekOut’s innovative AI-powered search, global power filters, diversity filters, and talent pool insight have been critical components of Aviatrix’s global growth plan. Seekout enables Aviatrix to efficiently and intelligently recruit and hire a world-class diverse team, helping us maintain our focus on hiring quality over quantity.” -Mario Linares, Head of Talent Acquisition, Aviatrix

Led by ex-Microsoft Distinguished Scientist Dr. Anoop Gupta, Co-founder and CEO at SeekOut, the company's early focus was on automating sourcing from GitHub via a tight integration. From there the company has built out a robust sourcing suite which integrates with the majority of the most widely-used applicant tracking systems in the industry (including Taleo, which is a feat in and of itself). According to Gupta: “Companies must continuously optimize their recruiting processes and strategies to compete in today’s hyper-competitive market. SeekOut provides talent acquisition professionals with a comprehensive 360-degree view of candidates based on numerous data sources and inferred properties. Our intuitive and powerful AI talent search engine with deep talent analytics and engagement capabilities empowers recruiting and sourcing experts to hire the best fit candidates fast.

Added Lisa Rowan, VP HR, talent, and learning research for IDC. "SeekOut’s Talent-360 solution offers a compelling set of capabilities that is supporting hiring organizations with a fresh, modern approach to candidate search."

The company plans to expand its Talent 360 platform to encompass internal and external talent – helping companies better retain employees, enable development & growth through internal mobility, and improve diversity and inclusion efforts. SeekOut will also invest in sales, marketing, and customer success to reach new customers.

The interesting part there is the internal mobility piece. Usually more of a focus of complex multinational advisory firms (PwC, Bain, etc), we're now seeing more and more of that happening across industries. With the rise in reskilling driven by the pandemic, automating the internal mobility process is a natural partner to those efforts.

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