Recruit goes nuts, money is raised, and more: news of the recruitment marketing industry

It is actually a bit insane how much has happened since my last news roundup! Recruit/Indeed seems to be bingeing on acquisitions, money is being raised by many at a fair clip, and Google is playing with the jobs stuff (again). So let’s get to it!:

• Facebook hires Steve Carter: Dr Steve Carter, a data scientist who helped design and build the psychometric and relationship models that became the basis of eHarmony — and who worked on Elevated Careers, the job site that eHarmony later sold off — is now working at Facebook, out of its offices in Los Angeles. Is he working on Facebook Jobs – or Facebook dating? Who knows? In completely unrelated news, Facebook Jobs has launched in DACH countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) this week, strategically going after the small- and medium-sized business market. Very interesting.
• DHI sells another job board:  DHI Group has sold Hcareers to Virgil Holdings Inc. for approximately $16.5 million in cash as it continues to dismantle its network. Hcareers targets the hospitality market. In possibly related OR unrelated news,  DHI is up 24.3% to rise to its highest level of 2018 on May 29th after TCS Capital reported holding a stake and expressed a willingness to acquire the company. I doubt the new CEO has even decorated his office!
• Adzuna brings home the bucks:  British recruitment portal Adzuna.co.uk announced it has raised £8 million ($10 million U.S.) in funding from Smedvig Capital. The Series C round sees Smedvig join backers Index Ventures, Passion Capital, LocalGlobe and over 400 Crowdcube investors, taking the company’s total funding to £12 million. Wonder what it’ll be used for? Umm, expansion.
• JobCloud hits record revenue: Swiss Ringier AG, in their financial results for FY2017, revealed that their JobCloud recruitment company, which they co-own with Tamedia, has surpassed the CHF 100 million revenue marker for the first time – or roughly $101M USD. Impressive
• Fairygodboss raises some cash:  Fairygodboss, a Glassdoor aimed at women, announced that it raised $3 million in venture capital. The company launched in 2015 and competes with other sites targeting gender specific reviews like InHerSight and WomenHack. This financing round closed on April 30 and brings the total capital raised to $4 million. Kinda sounding like an acquisition target.
• Google Jobs is doing stuff: Google has expanded the job posting schema and structured data to additional countries outside of the United States, including Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, India, Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Chile, and Canada. Some big markets in there! Also, Google says “Job posting data is now being collected from Web Light search results. Because of this, you might see an increase in your clicks and impressions for job postings.” Hmm…
• Recruit/Indeed gobbles up stuff: Recruit, parent company of Indeed and intent on conquering the recruiting world, bought Glassdoor for $1.2 billion. Then Recruit/Indeed acquired Resume.com for an ‘undisclosed amount’ on May 25. Perhaps some of this was driven by the company’s financial performance: revenue rose 7.2% at the Tokyo-based company to ¥556.4 billion, or $5.24 billion in US dollars during Q4. Still not enough? Well, Indeed also launched Indeed Assessments, a  platform that allows employers to screen candidates for skills specifically related to their open job postings rather than just relying on a resume. So take that!
• Welcome to the Jungle raises money:  French startup Welcome to the Jungle is raising a funding round of $8.4 million (€7 million) from XAnge, Bpifrance and Kima Ventures, as well as existing investors Jean-Paul Guisset and Michael Benabou. The company – which sounds a lot like a French TheMuse –  started by profiling hundreds of tech companies in Paris; it works with a video crew, photographers and a writing staff to produce content about these companies. And well…the name.
• Addeco.jp buys A-Star.co.jp: Addeco.jp, whose parent company Addeco recently bought Vettery,  acquired all of the freelance tech jobs site A-Star.co.jp‘s shares, for an undisclosed amount.  The Japanese corporation – which has 3,000 employees – already operates a temporary tech jobs site TBrain.Adecco.co.jp. It also runs a general temporary jobs site Haken.Adecco.co.jp, a regular jobs site SpringJapan.com, and a jobs site for fresh graduates Campus.SpringJapan.com. Interesting.
• A British app raises money: Debut, a British recruitment app startup, has raised $6.7 million (£5 million) to make its recommendation algorithms for job-seeking graduates smarter.  Debut already has 60 corporate clients, including Google, Apple and Barclays, that pay it an annual subscription to parse the data flood of graduate applicants who have completed psychometric and personality tests on its app. Can you say AI?
• Job.com rises again: Job.com was acquired last fall by an English investment company co-led by Arran Stewart. His team has been preparing to transform the namesake site as the company relocates its headquarters to Singapore.  The new platform – scheduled to roll out in the U.S. and Asia by the end of May – will connect job seekers directly to postings for which they qualify, using blockchain to provide security and trust for both parties by recording the entire process from the interview to the signing of an employment contract. Can you say blockchain?
• XING keeps growing: XING, the Germany professional network and LinkedIn competitor, saw its total revenues increased to € 54.0 million in the first quarter of 2018 (€ 42.1 million), generating of 28 percent. EBITDA increased in the reporting period by 19 percent to € 14.8 million (€ 12.4 million), and the site reached a total of 14 million members. Just making life hard for LI!

Wow. Well, there’s more but my fingers are tired. Don’t forget that I’ll be at the Jobg8 conference in Nashville next month – be sure to say hi! Till next time…

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