Circa, Horsefly, and LinkedIn: news of the job board industry

There have been a few(!) acquisitions since last month’s roundup, including Circa and Space-Careers, detailed  below. But that’s not all, folks! I’m talking layoffs, funding, and much more. Let’s take a look at the latest job board industry news:

• Circa is acquired: Mitratech, a legal, compliance and HR software company, has acquired Circa, an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and DEI software provider, and Trakstar, a talent acquisition, development and performance management service, from Turn/River Capital. Circa, based in Milwaukee and founded in 1994, has over 5,000 customers and 15,500 community partner relationships. Circa’s primary job board is DiversityJobs. Congrats!
• MyNavi acquires two sites: Japan-based job site operator MyNavi hasacquired India-based HR intelligence company PeopleMatters and Tennavi-job.com, a Japan-based job site for technical professionals. Established in 2009, PeopleMatters provides HR sector-related information, including market trends, and is also known for organizing HR conferences in India and Singapore. Tennavi-job connects employers with technicians in 400 different fields, including energy, health, electronics and information communication. Kudos!
• Job ads up in Switzerland: Companies across Switzerland advertised 4% more jobs in the first quarter of 2023, when compared to the first quarter of 2022, according to the latest Adecco Group Swiss Job Market Index and the University of Zurich’s Swiss Job Market Monitor. On a quarterly basis, the Swiss job market began 2023 with a slight decline (-1%) in the number of vacancies when compared with Q4 2022. The Job Market Monitor also examined job adverts in terms of language mentioned in job ads. Hmm.
• Horsefly raises funds: The improbably-named Horsefly, a U.K.-based AI-based talent acquisition platform, has landed funding from LDC. The company operates a subscription-based SaaS platform that collates real-time data on labor markets from 60 countries to provide companies with insight on recruitment, covering such areas as global talent sourcing, onboarding, diversity and pay benchmarking, in addition to workforce development and planning. Giddy-up!
• Hyperjob gets funding: Latvian startup Hyperjob has raised €435,000 in a funding round that will see the company launch a slew of new product features and continue its expansion across Europe and US markets. According to Hyperjob, their platform is built to increase positive response rates through interactive vacancy pages, automated and personalised Linkedin and email outreach sequences (that can be A/B tested), and AI-driven candidate suggestions.  Very interesting.
• CV-Library is doing very well, thank you: UK-based CV-Library announced its FY22 results, and they reveal a post-pandemic revenue and profit bounce, with revenue increasing by 49% from £32.7 million to £48.8 million ($60.6 million U.S.). Profit before tax, increased by 53%, up from £15.1 million in its FY 2021 financial results to £23.2 million. In August, the company announced it will integrate a ‘DirectApply’ function with leading ATS provider Teamtailor. The following month they acquired programmatic platform Brilliant Jobs, part of its plan to offer a global programmatic job advertising service across all the markets that it serves. Impressive.
• EuroJobsites acquires Space-Careers: EuroJobsites has acquired Space-Careers.com to its portfolio of adjacent recruitment solutions in science, technology, and engineering. Space-Careers was founded in 2004, and focuses on career-focused individuals in the space industry. Congrats!
• Talent.com lays off staff: Talent.com laid off 86 workers comprising 18% of staff. The cuts, which came almost one year to the day since Talent.com’s $120 million (U.S.) series B fundraise, impacted all departments, with no particular function targeted specifically, the company said. The cuts impacted Talent.com’s headquarters in Montreal and its other locations around the world, the company noted. Sorry to hear this.
• Medwing lands $47M: Medwing, a European startup building a recruitment marketplace for healthcare workers, has raised €44 million ($47 million) in a Series C round of funding. The marketplace targets the healthcare industry in Germany and the U.K. with a platform designed to match hospitals and clinics with nurses and elderly caregivers, though it also caters to pharmacists, midwives, doctors and similar professionals. Medwing claims some 5,500 registered medical employers and 500,000 healthcare professionals. Impressive.
• Appcast launches Appcast Labs: Programmatic recruitment software and technology company Appcast has launched Appcast Labs, a new research and innovation initiative that aims to create new talent acquisition solutions for employers. The new product, which will be led by Tom Chevalier,  will develop technology that complements Appcast’s existing programmatic recruitment advertising software and services.The company wants to expand beyond programmatic job advertising technology to build technologies that optimize recruitment marketing. Good luck!
• LinkedIn tests AI-powered job postings: In what could be a hint of everyone’s future, LinkedIn is testing AI-powered job postings in English to a limited number of job posters in the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, with plans to roll it out globally later this year. The company says that they “leverage the data that our customers have chosen to share with us that is already inputted into our platform and then we use AI to help format and create all the elements of a great job description”. In other LinkedIn news, the company says it will use Microsoft’s Verified ID to confirm that members actually work where they claim to work. The new verified identity service is a notable integration between the business social network and the company’s Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management group. Hmmm.
• Karat acquires Triplebyte’s rectech assessment business: Karat, a recruitment interviewing company, has acquired software engineer platform Triplebyte’s technical assessment product and its team. Karat, which has created an interviewing cloud to accelerate technical hiring, said the acquisition adds a skills-based assessment product to its suite of interviewing cloud offerings, and will help its clients identify and hire technology professionals more quickly, accurately and fairly. Interesting.
• Paraform lands cash: Paraform, a recruiting marketplace that enables tech companies to post bounties for open roles, announced that it raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding.  Anyone can get it if they refer a successful candidate. They don’t have to be a professional recruiter, but 90% of Paraform’s user base are. The founders say that the platform lets recruiters work without having to start their own recruitment agencies. In addition to giving recruiters a source of freelance work, Paraform is also keen to solve hiring challenges for tech companies. Intriguing.
• Recruiter.com financials are mixed: Recruiter.com posted revenue of $25.4 million, a year-over-year gain of 14% versus $22.2 million in 2021. Its net loss of $16.5 million was just 1% up on the $16.3 million loss incurred in 2021. Evan Sohn, CEO, added that the company’s focus was on providing “high-margin, technology-driven services” that boost near-term profitability while cutting operational expenses. Interesting.
• DHI’s settlement could impact other job boards: AIM Group reports that the U.S. government has settled an employment discrimination complaint against job board operator DHI Group, a development that brings into question long-held liability protections that recruitment sites have enjoyed alongside other internet publishers. The case concerned multiple charges of discrimination filed against DHI, which runs the job boards Dice.com and ClearanceJobs.com, concerning job ads that appeared to deter candidates of U.S. origin. “The case has set a worrying precedent because it treats DHI Group more like an employment agency than an internet publisher, said Steven Rothberg, founder and chief visionary officer of the job board College Recruiter.” Excellent analysis.

Geez! Another raft full of news, and there was plenty I had to leave out. I think it’s safe to say that the demand for workers is still strong, even as employers in many sectors are beginning to pull back in the face of economic uncertainty. We’ve been there before, though, right? Till next time…

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