Stack sells, Workrise rises: news of the recruitment marketing world

As you might guess, plenty of things (including Workrise) have happened since my last news roundup – not the least of which was ZipRecruiter’s debut as a public company (and a valuation of $2.7B).  And it seems like something happened with StackOverflow, right? So let’s dig in – it’s going to be a LOT of news!

• Prosus acquires StackOverflow: Prosus (the primary shareholder of Chinese gaming mega co/WeChat developer, Tencent) is acquiring Stack Overflow for $1.8 billion. While perhaps not a name everyone recognizes, Prosus — the international assets holding arm of South Africa’s Naspers — is something of a giant. In 2001, parent company Naspers bought a 46.5% stake in Tencent for $32 million dollars. Earlier this year they sold a 2% stake of Tencent for nearly $15 billion. All I can say is – wow!
• Handshake raises $80M: Handshake, a platform for professional networking and graduate recruitment aimed at college students, has closed in on $80 million, a Series E that it has confirmed values the company at over $1.5 billion. The valuation is a big hike compared to its previous round (also $80 million, as recently as last October), and comes as the company is recording a lot of momentum in the market. That seems to be an understatement.
• Workrise raises $300M: Workrise, which has built a workforce management platform for the skilled trades, announced today that it has raised $300 million in a Series E round led by U.K.-based Baillie Gifford that values the company at $2.9 billion. The site – formerly known as RigUp – laid off one-quarter of its corporate employees in 2020 as the oil and gas industry took an even bigger hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. It currently has more than 600 employees in 25 offices. Since then, Workrise has broadened its reach to include wind, solar, commercial construction and defense industries. That’s a big number!
• Outmatch acquires Harver: Outmatch acquired Harver, an Amsterdam-based provider of volume-hiring software. The company said Harver’s platform complements the assessments, video interviewing and reference-checking capabilities of Outmatch’s Hiring Experience Stack. The addition of Harver expands Outmatch’s workforce to a combined 300 global employees. Interesting.
• Malt raises $97M: Malt, which provides a way for developers, data scientists, designers, project managers and others working in related fields to connect with fixed-term job opportunities in their fields, has picked up €80 million ($97 million at today’s rates), money that the company plans to use to expand its business to more markets. Vincent Huguet, Malt’s CEO who co-founded the company with Hugo Lassiège and Jean-Baptiste Lemée, said in an interview that the funding in part will be used toward continuing to expand the company across Europe with a view to, longer term, also breaking into the U.S. More freelancing!
• Worksome lands cash: Worksome recently closed a $13 million Series A funding round for its “freelance talent platform” — after racking up 10x growth in revenue since January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a remote working boom. The 2017 founded startup, which has a couple of ex-Googlers in its leadership team, has built a platform to connect freelancers looking for professional roles with employers needing tools to find and manage freelancer talent. So many freelancers!
• Recruit’s earnings down in 2020: Japan-based recruitment giant Recruit Holdings saw a decline in annual earnings from its flagship marketplace brands, Indeed and Glassdoor. Its revenue fell 0.4% to Y423.2 billion ($3.9 billion U.S.) for FY2020. On a U.S. dollar basis, revenue increased 2.2%. Overall, the company saw 27% annual net profit decrease to Y131.3 billion ($1.2 billion U.S.). I suspect 2021 will be different.
• Professional Diversity Network revenue up: Networking and jobs website operator Professional Diversity Network Inc. (NASDAQ: IPDN) reported revenue jumped 51.1% in the first quarter. The company also noted today that approximately $2.9 million had been seized from its accounts in China by the Longxu District Court of Wuzhou City in Guangxi Provide to satisfy a judgement. In its last 10-K filing, the company noted the assets were seized in connection to a criminal investigation of alleged illegal public fund raising by the Gatewang Group, a separate company in China and with which Maoji “Michael” Wang, is affiliated. Wang is the former chairman and CEO of Professional Diversity Network. Hmm.
• JobIndex starts 2021 up:  JobIndex experienced its best quarter in its 25-year history in Q1 FY2021. Revenue in the first quarter was up 33% and reached DKK 97 million ($15.8 million U.S.). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization more than doubled, reaching DKK 43 million ($7 million U.S.). Congrats!
• Upstream raises funds: Upstream, a new professional networking platform, has just closed a $2.75 million seed round, bringing their total raised to $3.25 million. Upstream focuses on generating meaningful connections between its members, and one way they go about it is by hosting digital events that start with a speaker, followed by breakout matched sessions that are five minutes each. Intriguing.
• Polywork gets funding, too:  Polywork, a new professional social network founded by Lystable/Kalo founder, Peter Johnson, has announced a $3.5 million seed round. Polywork sums to a Twitter-style social feed where professionals can post updates about what they’re up to (in work and, if they like, in life too). On the professional networking side, the approach allows users to get a quick visual overview of an individual — perhaps fleshing out some of the dry details they already saw on their LinkedIn account — and quickly navigate to individual examples of specific activity. Interesting.
• Freelance.com revenue is up: Freelance.com, a freelance recruitment marketplace based in Paris, has reported its unaudited  financial results for Q1 2021 with €98.9 million ($120.9 million U.S.) in revenue, up 43% year-on-year from €69.2 million ($84.6 million U.S.).  In early May Freelance.com announced plans to merge with Helvetic Payroll, a Swiss payment services platform.  They’re doing something right…
• EHS gig site lands cash: YellowBird, a nationwide gig economy marketplace that matches vetted Risk and Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Professionals with businesses on-demand, has raised $1.7 million in seed capital. The investment will support the company’s growth both internally with hiring and externally scaling markets across the country. Much of the proceeds will be invested into further development of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform. Interesting.
• Jumpstart rebrands and raises funds: Jumpstart, a diversity recruitment platform, announced its rebranding as Canvas and the closing of $20 million in new funding. The investment brings Canvas’s total dollars raised to date to $32.5 million. Canvas intends to use the investment to expand its platform into industries and verticals beyond technology, and address the recruiting process for the later stages of people’s careers. Hmm.
• Boss Zhipin raising cash: In a filing with the SEC on 5 June, Kanzhun, the owner of Chinese online recruitment platform Boss Zhipin, discloses it seeks to raise up to $912 million by offering 48 million ADRs at a price range between $17-$19 per share on the Nasdaq under the symbol of BZ. The company’s core innovative product, Boss Zhipin, is a mobile app that allows job-seekers and employers to communicate directly. That’s a lot of cash!

I told you there was a lot of news! I suspect that the string of funding, acquisitions, and expansions will continue as the world’s economy continues to open up, post-virus. Fast your seat belts…

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