Yesterday, SmashFly announced that it secured $9M in funding, led by OpenView Venture Partners. The recruitment marketing platform plans to use the funding to build out product capabilities, as well as sales and marketing resources as they look to expand. George Roberts, the partner from OpenView who will be joining the board, said in the release, “Companies are looking for progressive solutions that move beyond transactional processes by leveraging proactive, data-driven talent recruitment strategies.”
It’s a trend we’ve been talking about here at The Starr Conspiracy, not only for recruiting but also for HCM in general. The next wave of HR solutions really taking off in the market play a role in leveraging all of the data collected in these systems and enabling HR leaders to make better decisions. The directive to get better decision-making isn’t always being driven by HR or even the C-suite. It’s driven by business unit leaders who need to make critical talent decisions for their organizations.
What does this mean for the market?
My colleague George LaRocque pointed out in his industry brief on the biggest acquisitions in HCM of this year that there was quite a bit of activity in recruiting. The companies involved in acquiring (or being acquired) include big names like CareerBuilder, LinkedIn, Monster, and HireVue, as well as companies like Gild, Broadbean, TalentBin, and Bright.
Companies like Gild and Work4Labs have also taken on additional funding this year to increase functionality and disrupt the established recruiting landscape. All of these solutions aren’t the traditional technology categories of four or five years ago, either.
For providers asking themselves whether it is the right time to look at investing in some product development, marketing, or sales horsepower as we go through this transition process, they should at least be taking an honest look at where they are in the market and where the threats could come from.
The answer, especially in the recruiting market, is probably a yes.
