SeekOut, a recruiting startup on a mission to help companies find diverse talent, just announced that it scored a $115 million investment led by VC big shot Tiger Global Management. This Series C values the four-year-old startup at $1.2 billion, making it the latest addition to Seattle’s small but growing community of tech unicorns minted in the last year.
Over the years, SeekOut has helped more than a thousand companies find qualified candidates. With the help of AI, machine learning and natural language technologies, its Talent 360 software lets users search for, analyze and engage with candidates while, at the same time, reducing bias.
“Today, most enterprises are flying blind when it comes to building and maintaining their workforces. Data is everywhere in the enterprise except where you need it most, informing the decisions about the people you need and the people you have,” SeekOut’s co-founder and CEO Anoop Gupta said in a statement. “With this financing round, we’ll be investing deeply in innovations that extend our leadership position in talent acquisition, and new solutions for internal mobility, employee retention, career pathing, and learning and development.”
Built In last caught up with SeekOut last March when it raised its $65 million Series C (also led by Tiger Global). And over the course of this year the Bellevue startup has had quite the growth spurt, claiming its ARR tripled and its customer count doubled.
Meanwhile, in the background of all this recent growth is the pandemic, and the rising concerns over things like work-life balance, remote work and burnout that have been born out of it. Incidentally, this has had a hand in the success of not just SeekOut, but other rising stars in the HR and recruiting tech space like Andela and Knoetic.
“It’s an exciting time to be in the people technology space as there’s a clear shift in the way companies are thinking about hiring and retaining talent,” John Curtius, a partner at Tiger Global, said in a statement. “SeekOut is at the forefront of this change, delivering a best-in-class solution for talent optimization that enables businesses to hire, grow and retain their workforce like never before. We are excited to partner with them as they continue to reshape the industry and provide companies with data, insights, and actions that drive results.”
