Money + Investments
Photo by Mathieu Stern
Visage Raises $7M for Its Sourcer-in-the Loop AI-based Recruiting Tech
Visage.jobs announced a $7 million Series A round of VC for its AI-powered recruitment sourcer marketplace, where talent sourcers compete to fill jobs matched to them by AI. AI also expedites the candidate matching process after sourcing. Visage reportedly has a network of over 4,000 sourcers across a variety of domain expertise.
It’s an interesting model. Human in-the-loop models are normally used in simulation or to train the AI to make better decisions. So, while the sourcers compete over time, we can’t help but wonder if they’re training the ultimate winner, the algorithm.
Workchew Raise $2.5M for On-Demand Flex Workplaces
Workchew announced a $2.5 million Seed round of venture capital to give teams and employers access to on-demand flexible workplaces by leveraging available hotel and restaurant space. The company offers a member-based subscription model providing access to workspaces and a 10% discount on any food and beverage purchased.
Positioned as an employee perk and workplace strategy compliment, it’s not a reaction to COVID. The company was started in 2018 and is expanding in cities and suburbs throughout North America with options available for individuals, SMBs, and larger Enterprises.
Source: Workchew Raises $2.5M to Drive the Future of Flexible Work
Celential.ai Raises $9.5 Million for Its AI-powered Recruitment Sourcing Tool for Engineers
Celential announced a $9.5 million Series A round of VC funding for its AI-powered recruitment sourcing tool focused on engineers. The firm reported 7X revenue growth in 2020 and plans to leverage the funding to extend its product and operationalize the business at scale.
Datapeople Raises $3 Million for Equitable and Inclusive Recruiting Through Data
Datapeople, formerly TapRecruit, announced an additional $3 million of capital raised, bringing its total raised to $8 million. Datapeople provides job description and recruiter email optimization focusing on equity and inclusion, leveraging language analytics and NLP. They are then providing recruiting and recruiting operation analytics to prove performance.
Aptitude Research’s upcoming Talent Acquisition Index Report found that diversity, equity, and inclusion is “playing an increasing role in recruiting tech decisions with 30% having a dedicated budget for D&I.” Job ad optimization is an area that gets ongoing attention.
Source: Datapeople’s Next Chapter: Comprehensive Recruiting Analytics to Make Hiring More Efficient and Fair
Teamflow Raises $11 Million for Team Collaboration Via Its “Virtual HQ”
Teamflow announced an $11 million Series A round of VC to spur collaboration across teams, bringing its total raised to $14.9 million. Teamflow delivers a virtual office plan with integrated apps like Google Docs and whiteboards. It also attempts to provide a social space with embedded games like Tetris.
It’s an interesting concept. I’m not sure if remote or distributed workers look to recreate a physical work experience online. One thing is certain, collaboration and communication apps are getting a ton of attention. $821 million VC was invested globally in this HR tech category.
Source: Announcing Teamflow’s Series A
TREND NOTE: Germany-based Kontist Raises USD $29.5M for Its Freelancer-focused Neobank and Tax Service
Germany-based Kontist raised a USD $29.5 million B round of venture capital for its neobank (the buzz-term for an online-only bank) and tax service for the self-employed. While Kontist appears to be currently focused on the German market, it represents what we predict to be an emerging global work tech trend. Marketplaces and services that are built to serve the growing market of freelancers and solopreneurs.
Kontist combines banking, bookkeeping, and taxes in one application, providing seamless access to tax estimates, payments, filing services, expense tracking reportedly powered by machine learning, and inbound and outbound payment processing.
The contingent workforce has been steadily growing for decades as it approached 50% of the total workforce pre-pandemic, that trend will only be accelerated as employers “hedge their bets” during an uncertain post-pandemic economic recovery. Regardless of the economic climate, the market supporting the independent workforce is burgeoning and we expect to see more smart models, like Kontist, emerge across the spectrum of tech and services.
Meet the Seventh HR Tech to Reach Unicorn in 2021, Ginger Raises $100 Million for Mental Health and Wellness
Ginger announced a $100 million Series E round of funding, bringing its total raised to $220.7 million. It also reports a valuation of $1.1 billion, making it HR technology’s latest unicorn. Ginger provides on-demand behavioral health coaching, scheduled video therapy and psychiatry sessions, and validated mental health skill-building activities via its app to employees and health plan participants.
Ginger becomes the seventh work tech unicorn that we’ve tracked this year, and the third in the mental health category.
Apps across the total wellbeing space have received significant attention over the last few years. Most are focused on a specific part of wellness: mental wellness, physical wellness, financial wellness, career wellness, etc. The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of mental wellness like no other wellness category and accelerated both the adoption of services and technology and VC investment in the category.
In 2020, $485 million was invested in HR tech focused on wellness. Get the full report on global HR technology investment in 2020 for free here.
Vyopta Raises $8 Million For Employee Collaboration Performance Management
Vyopta announced an $8 million growth funding investment round, bringing its total raised to $22 million. Vyopta develops a collaboration performance management tool that actively monitors the use of virtual and physical meeting space, providing reports on utilization and performance. It’s a good example of how, during the return to work, IT, Operations, and HR are converging around WorkTech.
Source: Vyopta Raises US$8 Million in Growth Financing from Vistara Capital Partners | Vyopta
TREND NOTE: Resume NFTs, the Blockchain Trend Disrupting the HR Technology Market
It was just a matter of time. If anything in HR should be “non-fungible,” it’s the resume. Employers want to know that they are in receipt of the original resume of a candidate with information validated by the source and protected by the blockchain. And they’re willing to pay for it for qualified candidates.
Earlier this week, the Internet exploded after one of the Big Tech shops was reported to pay $562K for the resume of a data scientist with more than a decade of experience.
And, investors are lining up. In 2021 Q1 VC pumped more than $420 million into these NFT resume startups. This may be the trend that brings HR to the blockchain.
Watch this space.
George LaRocque's updates on who got how much this week
