Rec Tech: the Recruiting Technology Podcast

Lever, a leading Talent Acquisition Suite, has completed a $50 millionSeries D funding round with the Apax Digital Fund. The funding comes as the market for talent acquisition is continuing to heat up, and companies face the most competitive market for hiring and retaining talent to date.  The investment in Lever will accelerate solution development in talent analytics, top-of-funnel talent discovery, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as support growth in new markets, and continued product innovation. https://hrtechfeed.com/lever-raises-50-million/ Fountain, the world’s leading all-in-one applicant tracking system for high volume hiring, today announced $85 million in Series C financing, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2* with participation from B Capital Group and Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and existing investors DCM, Origin Ventures, Commerce Ventures, SemperVirens Venture Capital and Uncork Capital.  This new round follows strong company momentum in 2021 as revenue grew 220% year-over-year. Fountain now has more than 250 customers including Chipotle Mexican Grill, John Lewis & Partners and Just Eat Takeaway. With the Series C, Fountain has now raised $119 million to date. Fountain will use the new funding to continue to invest in innovation of its hiring platform, as well as to grow its sales and engineering teams and its operations and presence in EMEA and APAC regions.  https://hrtechfeed.com/fountain-raises-85-million-to-help-companies-hire-hourly-workers/  Contra, a professional community that empowers anyone to work independently, today announced the launch of commission-free payments and $30M in Series B funding to help Contra on its journey to revolutionizing the way independents work.The funds will be used for internal hiring and further product innovation as Contra scales to meet the needs of the millions of independent workers that value the freedom, autonomy and financial benefits of the freelance lifestyle. Contra has combined every aspect of the independent journey into one platform and gives independents all the tools they need to build their professional identities and work the way they want.  https://hrtechfeed.com/independent-worker-community-lands-30-million-in-funding/ Fiverr announced the acquisition of Stoke Talent, an intuitive all-in-one solution to help companies manage their work with freelance talent, for $95 million.  This includes tools to onboard, pay, track budgets and more. With Stoke’s product suite, Fiverr is looking to add more value to larger businesses and integrate with existing corporate workflows. https://hrtechfeed.com/fiverr-acquires-stoke-talent-freelance-management-platform/  When I Work, a leading SaaS employee scheduling, time-tracking and team messaging platform, today announced it has secured a $200 million growth investment. Founded in Minneapolis and now operating as a remote-first company, When I Work is a leading provider of shift-based workforce management software that delivers a powerful, employee-first experience to streamline scheduling, enhance internal communication and more efficiently track time. Since its founding in 2010, more than 10 million hourly employees have used the frictionless platform to easily view and swap shifts, clock in, view hours worked, request time off and seamlessly communicate with their managers and co-workers.    https://hrtechfeed.com/hourly-worker-scheduling-app-raises-200-million/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Onwards HR an employee termination platform for HR won this years pitchiest. Here is the audio from the final round of 6 startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TWIRT this week in rec tech Stride Health, the leader in portable benefits for independent workers, announced that it has raised a $47 million Series C, bringing its total funding to $96M. The round was led by King River Capital with participation from Mastercard and Allstate along with existing investors Venrock, NEA, Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital, and Moderne Ventures.   https://hrtechfeed.com/stride-raises-47m-to-provide-affordable-benefits-for-independent-workers/ Upwork has announced Virtual Talent Bench, a series of features that makes relationship building central to the customer experience on Upwork by empowering clients to discover, organize, revisit and hire the independent talent they trust, collaborated with to drive successful outcomes or want to work with in the future.  Virtual Talent Bench features enable clients to establish a network of top independent professionals they can work with time and time again on their most critical projects or to complement skill sets on their full-time teams. https://hrtechfeed.com/upwork-introduces-virtual-talent-bench/ GoodTime, the leading AI-based hiring experience solution, with clients such as Box, Shopify, and Zoom, has added enhanced interviewer training functionality to its features set to remove bottlenecks, reduce time-to-hire, and ensure a great candidate experience, no matter who conducts the interview. https://hrtechfeed.com/goodtime-adds-enhanced-interviewer-training-functionality/ HackerRank, the developer skills company, today announced a record-breaking quarter fueled by increasing demand to recruit and hire tech talent virtually. The company reported its highest-ever level of new and expansion bookings — seeing a 100% increase in expansion revenue alone over the past year — as companies accelerate their remote hiring efforts due to broader shifts in the labor market. https://hrtechfeed.com/hackertanks-says-remote-tech-hiring-still-surging/  Ladder, the next-gen professional community platform, announced the launch of its new mobile app and raise of $3.7 million in funding from Forerunner Ventures,  On Ladder, members can join professional communities, consume high-quality career content, engage in fun discussions, land their dream job, and form meaningful relationships with peers and mentors. The platform aims to become the go-to professional social network for Gen Z. Ladder was founded in 2020, during the height of COVID-19, when millions of college students across the country were sent home with no job lined up, no idea what remote work meant, and no sense of community.  https://hrtechfeed.com/professional-community-platform-ladder-announces-3-7-million-in-funding/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special episode today ...we have 2 guests for you Gina Alioto is the VP of Brand and Experience with Symphony Talent and Sherri Ratliff is a director of TA at T-mobile...both are here to walk us through their recent presentation from the HR technology conference…around the topic of HR technology adoption. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

interviewIA — an interview platform that empowers interviewers to quickly build and deliver more effective interviews and more efficient hiring decisions — has launched its new free and paid team subscription model to put better interviewing in everyone’s hands. https://hrtechfeed.com/interviewia-launches-freemium-interview-software/  Hunt Club, a tech-enabled talent and recruitment company placing leadership roles across the fastest growing companies in the tech sector, has raised a $10M Series A from Teamworthy Ventures to further the development of their Talent Expert Network, candidate referral technology, and their growing high-performance recruiting team. In a few short years, Hunt Club’s Talent Expert Network has grown to over 12,000 experts, connecting 6 Million quality candidates through people and technology. With Hunt Club, a search for talent is focused on quality – not quantity. https://hrtechfeed.com/hunt-club-raises-10m-to-help-high-growth-companies-hire-faster-with-candidate-referrals/ Deel, the remote hiring company shattering job barriers worldwide, announced today that it has raised $425 million in Series D funding, taking the total amount raised by the company to over $630 million. The latest funding round values the company at $5.5 billion. Deel has become the highest valued company in the global hiring, payments, and compliance space with this investment. https://hrtechfeed.com/deel-strikes-gold-with-425-million-funding-round/ interviewing.io, the technical interview practice platform that is reinventing how software engineers get hired, today announced it has raised a $10 million series A led by M13. On the interviewing.io platform, software engineers can book mock interviews with the interviewing.io roster of hiring managers from companies such as (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google interviewing.io’s says their approach saves companies 220 hours of valuable recruiter and hiring manager time per hire and gets them what they need: a steady stream of strong, senior engineers who are looking for a new role. Forty percent of the hires made through the interviewing.io platform come from non-traditional backgrounds (lesser-known schools or past employers, no degree, etc.).  https://hrtechfeed.com/interviewing-io-raises-10-million-series-a/  Wonolo, the leading online platform disrupting the temporary staffing industry, today announced the raise of a $138 million growth round, led by Leeds Illuminate with strong participation from 137 Ventures and G2 Venture Partners. Franklin Templeton also came in on the round. This latest round brings Wonolo’s total venture funding to over $200 million.  The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s continued growth and mobile-first tech innovations. The company will also continue to expand in markets across the United States – and deepen its market share in top markets including: Newark, Dallas, Atlanta, New York City, Chicago, Phoenix, Nashville, Tampa, San Antonio, Miami, Columbus, Austin, Houston, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Philadelphia. https://hrtechfeed.com/temp-staffing-platform-wonolo-secures-138-million Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this audio you'll hear from Doug Leonard of Clovers.ai, Eric Smith from TalentCare and Gal Amog from Talenya. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pillar, an interview intelligence platform, is announcing its launch today. The platform leverages AI and in-interview coaching to provide companies with a more reliable way to assess a candidate’s fit for a role during the interview process With the launch, Pillar adopts and expands upon the initial vision and product built by Luma, an AI-based interview tool that launched out of High Alpha earlier this year. https://hrtechfeed.com/pillar-launches-interview-intelligence-platform-to-help-companies-grow-better-with-every-hire/  Hirect, an AI-driven mobile hiring app that recently launched a $1 millionStartup Program to help fellow startups earn exposure and fill high priority positions with motivated, qualified candidates – for free. Chosen startups receive free marketing on various social channels with the goal of reaching a million impressions across platforms. Selected CEOs and founders are invited to participate in virtual hiring events hosted by Hirect and its partners. The Program is open to startups nationwide, with 10 participating in the campaign to date and more in the pipeline. https://hrtechfeed.com/next-generation-hiring-app-pledges-1-million-in-support-of-fellow-startups/  Hibob – the company behind ‘bob’, the HR platform that is changing the work experience for fast-growing, mid-sized businesses and their employees – today announced $150 million in Series C funding.  https://hrtechfeed.com/hibob-secures-150m-series-c/ SparkPlug is an employee rewards and campaign management platform built specifically to increase revenues, retention rates, and marketing ROI for brick-and-mortar restaurants, retailers and the consumer goods companies they work with has announced they have received 2.5 million in new funding.... Companies that use SparkPlug can incentivize frontline workers and in-store sales staff to influence purchasing outcomes by launching sales-based commission and reward campaigns.  https://hrtechfeed.com/sparkplug-gets-3-5m-to-improve-life-for-frontline-workers/ Eightfold’s Talent Intelligence Platform now features: A consumer-grade user experience which increases internal development, paired with intelligent onboarding. The result is a highly personalized experience that benefits the organization and employee alike.  Real-time deep analytics on skills that allows the organization to view detailed insights on the skill strengths and gaps across all employees and hiring prospects.  Customizable dashboards that facilitate a deeper and more relevant understanding of the organization.  An easily navigated Career Hub that matches employees to internal roles, projects, mentors, and learning courses aligned with their desired career path.  Automated and tailored career pathing, which predicts future role fits based on inferred and adjacent skills, and surfaces best-fit growth opportunities to employees, including lateral and non-traditional career moves. https://hrtechfeed.com/the-ai-powered-employee-experience-arrives-as-eightfold-ai-rolls-out-self-service-capabilities-and-new-reporting-dashboards/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a quick recap of my trip to the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas. You'll also hear a chunk of what Josh Bersin had to say on the state of HR tech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smart interview platform BrightHire has secured a $20.5M Series B to further accelerate the growth of their more equitable, faster approach to hiring. The Series B funding is led by 01A with participation from Index Ventures and Zoom  Apps Fund and follows a recent $12.5M Series A led by Index Ventures a few months prior, in May 2021. It’s also supported by Ground Up Ventures, Haystack, and J Ventures.  https://hrtechfeed.com/brighthire-secures-20-5m-series-b-to-transform-the-interview-process/ HireQuest, a national franchisor of on-demand, temporary, and commercial staffing services, today announced that it has acquired Recruit Media, Inc., an HR tech start-up with a next-gen SaaS recruitment platform.  HireQuest will integrate the Recruit Media platform with its existing technology suite used by its franchisees to run their day-to-day business. Recruit Media’s technology will streamline workforce communications and allow franchisees to better serve their customers. In addition, the public facing web domain, www.Recruit.com, along with its respective iOS and Android apps, gives HireQuest a fully functional online job ad and recruitment platform that could become an additional business line, or stand-alone company, in the future. https://hrtechfeed.com/hirequest-acquires-recruit-com/ Recruiting operations platform ModernLoop lands $3.3M to create better technical hiring experiences Recruiters have traditionally kept track of the hiring process manually with spreadsheets, but ModernLoop automates many of the repetitive tasks while also scheduling and balancing the interviewing workload so that not only are the right people involved, but also a diverse mix of interviewers. ModernLoop was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2021 cohort https://hrtechfeed.com/recruiting-operations-platform-modernloop-lands-3-3m-to-create-better-technical-hiring-experiences/ Culture Amp, the world’s leading employee experience platform, announced today that it has acquired cultural values recognition company, Disco. Disco helps companies recognize and celebrate values-driven work, foster team appreciation and improve company culture across distributed teams.  Together the two companies will accelerate their shared vision of creating a better world of work by helping people feel more connected, valued, and engaged at a critical time for organizations.  https://hrtechfeed.com/culture-amp-acquires-remote-culture-platform-disco/ Finally the wall street journal broke the news that The Mom Project Inc., a recruitment platform focused on mothers, raised $80 million in new capital at what may be a pivotal moment for working women and the companies that want to hire them. The Mom Project has more than 500,000 job seekers on its platform, most of whom are college-educated. https://hrtechfeed.com/the-mom-project-raises-80-million/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

TEAM LEWIS, the global marketing agency, today announced that it is retiring the resume. The initiative is one of many aimed at opening doors to career changers and non-degree holders. It will offer job seekers the opportunity to choose a career based on what they want to be and how they want to change the world.  "In a world that is relentlessly digital, video-first and unbound from convention, we have to recognize that the unique combination of talent and aspiration we're looking for can and does come from anywhere and everywhere," says Hillary Werronen, SVP US Operations of TEAM LEWIS. "We're looking for passion, curiosity and the desire to push boundaries and rail against the status quo. Our TEAM can teach the skills to some of the best and brightest minds in the industry. Together, we'll build the future of marketing."   TEAM LEWIS, the global marketing agency, today announced that it is retiring the resume. Tweet this Seasoned and aspiring marketers alike will be able to visit teamlewis.com/ER and in one word describe who they want to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices