Byteboard, BrightHire, and CareerBuilder: news of the job board industry

It’s been kind of busy around here lately. As you probably saw, the 2021-22 Recruiting Site Trends Survey Results are out – some interesting stuff there. And yes, news keeps happening in our industry (like Byteboard)! So it’s time for a roundup of what’s what:

• ModernLoop lands funding: ModernLoop was part of the Y Combinator Winter 2021 cohort and announced it raised $3.3 million in funding. ModernLoop automates many of the repetitive tasks involved in hiring, while also scheduling and balancing the interviewing workload so that not only are the right people involved, but also a diverse mix of interviewers. The platform also trains interviewers with a shadowing experience and facilitates communication and coordination via Slack so people on the company and candidate side have all of the information needed for the interview. Interesting.
• Recruit Media is acquired: U.S.-based on-demand staffing company HireQuest has acquired rectech service Recruit Media. While commercial terms of the deal were kept undisclosed, “the transaction was paid for with cash on hand and a modest revolver draw,” the company said in a statement. Founded in 2014, Recruit Media owns and operates SaaS recruitment site Recruit.com, which enables job-seekers to build up online profiles and communicate directly with employers through in-app messaging and video chats. Congrats!
• On-demand executive talent marketplace launches: Continuum, a talent marketplace for fractional employees, has launched. Continuum’s model does the outbound work for companies and presents a list of executives, within 48 hours, who are available to start that day, working 15 or 20 hours per week. Executives create a profile and set their availability and rate and can accept or reject an opportunity. Continuum charges a 15% fee on top of that. Interesting.
• Fiverr is acquiring CreativeLive: Fiverr announced that it’s acquiring Seattle-based online learning company CreativeLive for an undisclosed amount. CreativeLive is an entrepreneurial learning platform where users can attend courses on video, photography, design, business, marketing and more. ​​“Fiverr is more than just a work platform, we fundamentally believe in supporting the entire freelance lifestyle, and that includes professional education and training,” said Fiverr founder and CEO Micha Kaufman in a statement. CreativeLive will remain a standalone service and grow its team from its current headquarters in Seattle. Very interesting.
• Job postings can improve diversity: The Berkeley economist David Card, who was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize for his work on minimum wage and immigration, has released new research on how job listings can affect gender diversity in workplaces. A campaign launched in Austria in 2005 designed to remind and enlighten employers and newspapers that gender preferences in job advertisements were against the law. Removing gender preferences from job vacancies led to a 2.5 percentage-point increase in the fraction of women hired to fill vacancies with a predicted male preference, and a smaller — “but still significant” — 1 percentage-point increase in the fraction of men hired to fill vacancies with a predicted female preference. Good.
• Snagajob sells its ATS: SnagAJob will sell its ATS PeopleMatter and on-boarding service HiringManager to workforce and inventory management software Fourth Enterprises LLC. The ownership transfer will create a synergy in tapping the market in need of recruitment services, according to SnagAJob. The acquisition will bestow Fourth with 3,500 customers with approximately 60,000 rooftops, while the firm will retain all the employees of PeopleMatter and HiringManager. Hmm.
• CareerBank’s revenue is up: Japan-based recruitment company Career Bank managed to keep profitability unaffected during the first quarter. In fact, the first quarter ended with operating income of Y63.7 million ($571,000) as opposed to operating loss of Y30.2 million ($271,000) in the same period of the previous year. Quarterly sales increased 34% to Y1.7 billion ($15.6 million). Impressive.
• Byteboard spins out of Google: Byteboard, a service designed to replace the pre-onsite technical interview part of a company’s hiring process with a web-based alternative, will be spinning out of Google. The product was originally incubated as part of the company’s internal R&D lab known as Area 120. Launched in 2019, Byteboard’s idea was to create a tool that would make the technical interview experience less tedious and more effective. Hmm.
• Technical interviewing startup Karat reaches $1.1B valuation: Karat, a Seattle-based startup that helps companies conduct technical interviews, raised a $110 million Series C round at a $1.1 billion valuation. The startup uses a network of vetted interviewers who run the interviews via video conference, using a question format and scoring rubric based on research and analysis done by Karat. The companies receive feedback on the top qualified applicants, based on Karat’s diligence, as well as insights about their hiring process. Good idea.
• FloCareer gets funding:  India-based interviewing startup FloCareer has raised $5.7 million in Series A capital to develop its business in the U.S. and accelerate growth in its base country, according to media reports. Founded in 2018, FloCareer conducts video and telephonic interviews of job-seekers with technical backgrounds, such as cloud tech, data analytics and Java on behalf of employers. It has a team of 3,000 industry-experienced freelancer interviewers and 100 experts for screening candidates from across the world. Congrats!
• Relevel gets cash:  India-based learning service Unacademy injected $20 million in its screening startup Relevel to capitalize on growing response from tech freshers to get jobs on skill assessment. Founded four months ago, Relevel conducts skills evaluation in frontend, backend, and business development and helps job-seekers find jobs in 15 days. Unacademy says Relevel has 100% placement rate for those who clear exams. 100%? Wow.
• BrightHire scores funds: BrightHire, a startup that wants to transform the way people are hired inside organizations, announced a $20.5 million Series B investment. The company is based on taking information from a Zoom-based interview and using the data to drive hiring decision-making. In addition, throughout the interview, the software will surface critical questions to ask the candidate, which helps ensure every interview is conducted in a consistent way. Intriguing.
• CareerBuilder has a new logo: Yes, it’s true – CareerBuilder has a new logo. And I’ve been around for all four, sorry to say! That’s all.
• The Mom Project lands big bucks: The Mom Project, a career website that connects women with job opportunities, announced an $80 million Series C funding round. The round brings total funding at The Mom Project to $106 million. “It’s long past time we stop underestimating and undervaluing mothers in the workforce,” said Stephanie Nieman, managing director at Leeds Illuminate. “The Mom Project provides flexible work opportunities to enable moms to work on their own terms, and in doing so, it expands what’s possible for working women and for companies of all sizes.” That’s a lot of money.
• Randstad revenue up: Randstad nv reported third-quarter revenue rose 21% year over year on an organic basis. The Netherlands-headquartered firm also said revenue was up 5% compared to the third quarter of 2019. US revenue rose 16% on an organic basis while Canadian revenue rose 28%. Good news.
• Alma revenue up: Alma Career, which houses Alma Media‘s recruitment businesses in ten countries in Eastern Central Europe, saw its revenue and adjusted EBITDA increase in the first three quarters of FY2021. The company’s Q1-Q3 revenue amounted to €58.1 million ($67.6 million U.S.) — up 22.5% from €47.4 million in Q1-Q3 2020. The Alma Career segment includes recruitment sites Monster.fi, Jobs.cz, Prace.cz, CV Online, Profesia.sk, MojPosao.net and MojPosao.ba, the Seduo online training service and Prace za rohem. Also good news.

Well…that’s a lot of news. Somehow, I suspect there will be more in a few weeks. It’s just how things are going in 2021. So I will be back with more!

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