iHire, JobIndex, HelloWork – buy, buy, buy!: News of the job board industry

The last installment of our news roundup was full of positive news, with more funding, more profits, iHire, and even more M&A. You had to wonder – was it a freak event? Or a sign of more good news to come? Well…it looks like the latter, based on what I’ve seen. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look:

• HelloWork acquires Seekube: HelloWork – the French parent company of Regionsjob – has purchased Seekube,  a technological platform dedicated to virtual recruitment forums. In 2020,Seekube achieved a turnover of 2.5 million euros (+ 75% in one year). This acquisition builds on the existing HR event offerings that HelloWork has, and positions it for the post-COVID world. Interesting.
• JobIndex buys two competitors: JobIndex, the leading Danish recruitment site, has bought two of its competitors. The two sites, Nyboss.dk and Jobsogningsguide.dk, specialize in creating social media groups for job seekers and employers. The sites, which are both owned by Kim Soelberg, have a collective 30,000 members on Facebook and LinkedIn. This purchase may likely be in preparation for Schibsted’s expansion into Denmark later this year. Very interesting.
• Dice adds self-assessment: Humantelligence has partnered with Dice to offer candidates access to its self-assessment tools, which look at a user’s motivators, behaviors and ideal work styles. Through the relationship, job seekers can take Humantelligence’s 12-minute self-assessment for free. Based in Miami Beach, Humantelligence’s product suite includes tools for self-assessment, cultural analytics, talent fit and engagement. Clients include BASF, Honda, Visa, Lexmark and KFC. A smart move?
• Coconala grows revenue: Japan-based freelancer marketplace Coconala.com reported an operating profit of Y69 million ($634,500 U.S.), making it the second largest freelance marketplace after CrowdWorks. The marketplace facilitates completion of freelance jobs in a wide range of categories from design, website creation, video and music creation and writing to business marketing, career counseling and fashion advices. Hmm.
• Crosschq raises cash: Crosschq, which markets recruiting software they call Human Intelligence Hiring™, closed $13 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management. Crosschq’s core engine contains three modules to help companies better source, screen, and onboard talent while providing a fully connected analytics suite that enables on-demand access to true quality of hire data. Double hmm.
• Seek Asia appoints key positions:  Seek Asia, the operator of JobStreet and JobsDB, has appointed Lewis Ng as chief operating officer (COO) and Isaac Shao as head of unification and transformation for the Asian division. In his new role as COO, Ng (LinkedIn profile) will be in charge of driving sales growth acceleration and revenue streams in all of Seek Asia’s markets. Shao will be now Asia’s main point of contact in supporting Seek’s APAC unification. Intriguing.
• iHire acquiring WorkInSports: iHire announced plans to acquire WorkInSports, an employment hub of the sports industry. WorkInSports will join iHire’s family of talent brands, becoming the 57th industry-focused community on iHire’s recruitment platform. Post-acquisition, WorkInSports will be fully integrated with iHire’s platform. Congrats!
• LinkedIn adds audio:  LinkedIn is building an audio-based networking tool that looks like similar to the trendy social media app Clubhouse. Social media researcher Alessandro Paluzzi found a mock-up of the new feature’s user interface by rummaging through the backend of LinkedIn’s mobile app. The user interface looks similar to that of Clubhouse, a trendy new app that allows users to host and take part in spoken conversations on specific topics. Count me skeptical.
• Datapeople raises funds: Datapeople, a startup that sells software designed to make recruiting more equitable, announced that it has raised $8 million across two funding events, including a $5 million round in mid-2020. Its initial product, what Datapeople calls “Language Analytics,” scans job postings, offering suggested edits to customers to help them attract a more diverse group of applicants. The recruiting side of its software service will keep tabs on diversity data such as the pace at which a company’s job posting attracts women against related jobs’ own performance, among other bits of data-focused reporting. Interesting.
• InfoJobs launches new site:  InfoJobs.net has launched a tech recruitment portal in collaboration with Barcelona Tech City. The niche sub-site, called Tech Talent, advertises roles available at any of the businesses within Tech City. Tech Talent is a semi-private job board. Users have to register to apply for roles. They can, however, upload their resume without joining the platform. Good luck.
• ZipRecruiter offers job match scoring: ZipRecruiter has begun providing job seekers with feedback about how strong a match they are for every job. The guidance is generated using artificial intelligence algorithms trained on data from billions of employer and job seeker interactions. For each job, the company gives a score of “great match,” “good match,” “fair match,” or “not a match” — indicating how favorably a hiring manager will view the user’s application. Now where have I seen this before??

That’s about it for this time around. I’m getting the sense that this spring may be pretty busy for job boards and related services…which is good! Till next time…

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