企业营销自动化企业Radius完成Peter Thiel领投的5000万美元D轮融资
由 Facebook 的第一个实习生 Darian Shirazi 创建的企业营销自动化企业 Radius获得由Peter Thiel 的 Founders Fund 领投的 D 轮 5000 万美元的融资。 截止到这次融资,Radius 已经获得了总共 1.25 亿美元的投资。但他们没有公开透露目前公司的估值,Radius 的一位发言人表示,该公司价值 5 亿美元。
Radius 围绕大数据分析技术为客户展开 B2B 营销自动化服务。Radius 的“智慧云(Intelligence Cloud)” 可以对客户的众多渠道(社交媒体、合作伙伴数据、销售系统数据、政府公开数据等)的数据进行分析。再利用不同的模型为客户制定营销策略。据称Radius跟踪的企业数达到了 3000 万,可实时收集500亿个数据点,通过公开数据和专有数据的结合为企业生成其最终客户会不会最终购买产品的“信心指数”。
Radius 计划将本轮融资继续用于其“智慧云(Intelligence Cloud)”的开发。而长远的目标就是上市,投资机构也用实际行动表明了对它的信心。Radius 去年 10 月刚刚完成了 C 轮 5470 万美元的融资。上一轮的老朋友 AME Cloud Ventures,BlueRun Ventures Formation 8,Glynn Capital Management,Salesforce Ventures,Yuan Capital 等多家机构都参加了 Radius 本轮的融资。
B2B 的营销工具 Radius 活得不错,B2C 的企业营销自动化工具也开始风生水起,前沃尔玛、高朋高管出来做的 B2C 的企业营销自动化工具 BlueShift 也开始受到关注。
过去的企业营销自动化工具主要围绕 B2B 业务展开。做 B2C 的难点在于,B2C 的商品种类比 B2B 领域多得多,B2C 要做营销自动化,要求服务商提供更多个性化的服务。
BlueShift 和 Radius 一样围绕大数据为客户提供营销服务,他们目前定位在电商客户群。动态分割和动态内容相结合,使得用户的身份数据和操作内容可以更加准确的匹配,以满足商家个性化营销的需求。他们通过利用用户的实时操作数据来建立用户档案,而传统的做法是根据历史操作数据建档。
BlueShift 目前获得了 Nexus Venture Partners 领投的 260 万美元的种子轮融资。
Marketing intelligence firm Radius raises another $50 million
Radius, the marketing intelligence software startup founded by Facebook vet Darian Shirazi, has raised another $50 million led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
With the latest investment round, the six-year-old San Francisco-based company will have raised $125 million to date, following a $54.7 Series C round that closed last September.
Radius is not disclosing its exact valuation, but a company spokesperson says it's north of $500 million. The company has doubled its valuation with every round raised.
Radius investors include Formation 8, Glynn Capital Management, Jerry Yang's AME Cloud Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, BlueRun Ventures and Yuan Capital. That's in addition to former Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack and actor/entrepreneur Jared Leto, who participated in Radius's previous investment rounds.
Radius pegs itself as data science company for B2B marketers. Its platform revolves around a predictive marketing software suite and its proprietary data science engine, the Radius Intelligence Cloud, which tracks more than 50 billion data points on 30 million businesses.
The platform connects to a company's CRM platform, and then uses public, government and other partner sources of data to analyze and refine a client's marketing strategy, helping them generate lead lists of their ideal prospects, increase sales or scale to a national campaign. Beyond prospect data, Radius also provides social media activity from the likes of Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, Google and Foursquare, all in one centrally configured place.
Radius clients include office supply chain Staples and POS maker Revel Systems. Its most prominent competitors include Infer, Lattice Engines and Six Sense Media.
Radius plans to use the new capital for continued development of its Intelligence Cloud. As for the company's long-term roadmap, a home on Wall Street is certainly in the cards.
In an interview last September, Sharazi said he ultimately sees Radius as a publicly traded company.
"We want to build a public company," Sharazi said. "You need freedom to build something incredible. We built this practice around data science and the appreciation for data science, and in order to do this right and solve the problems of such a large market, we felt like we had to stay independent."
来源:ZDNet
投融资
2015年07月31日
投融资
金融垂直招聘平台“职业梦”完成 A 轮近千万美金融资
金融领域垂直招聘平台“职业梦”宣布完成 A 轮近千万美金融资,长安私人资本领投,乐视、贝塔斯曼亚洲投资基金(BAI)、Infinity Ventures Partners(IVP) 和 3 名金融机构高管跟投。创始人朱超透露,本轮融资将主要用于 B 端市场的拓展和新产品的研发。同时“职业梦”宣布已经启动A+轮融资,领投方为金融资讯平台“华尔街见闻”。
“职业梦”早期是一个金融领域的教育平台,今年开始转型金融领域的垂直招聘平台,定位包括应届生、实习生在内的 5 年工作经验以下金融从业者。据“职业梦”提供的数据,目前“职业梦” C 端注册用户 20 万,5年以上工作经验人才也占到了 10 % 的比例。
同时,“职业梦”也针对中小金融企业客户提供基于 SaaS 的外部人才解决方案,提供简历管理系统、视频简历系统等工具。朱超认为,在金融领域,人才不如互联网市场强势。对于垂直于金融领域的求职网站来说,“服务好 B 端,网站上有职位,用户就自己过来了。”
“职业梦”目前有 100 多名员工,“40 多个技术都在给 B 端做服务,还有一个 20 人的 B 端推广团队。” 目标是在年底把平台上的公司做到 5000 家,目前平台上有 1400 家企业。“职业梦”后续将继续人才数据分析管理、标准化人才培训等业务。同时,他们希望能够接入企业内部系统,完成外部系统服务到内部SaaS系统搭建的转变。
针对个人求职者,他们正通过把招聘的数据库和培训的数据库连接起来,提供针对性的职位、培训课程推荐服务。“如果系统之前看到一个人职业路径是 A - B - C ,那当它分析到一封 A - B 的简历,就会推荐 C 给这个人,同时告诉这个人你哪几个方面要补。” 在联合创始人黄海眼中,“求职 - 培训 - 求职”的闭环是“职业梦”一定要搭的,之后“职业梦”更多的会作为一个流量入口,把其他金融领域的培训服务拉到平台上来。
下一步“职业梦”还会涉足金融职场社交,“肯定不是人跟人之间随便勾搭那种纯社交,主要会以信息为导向,例如你要找在中信工作的人,或是咨询中金的信息,就可以在‘职业梦’上完成。” 在朱超看来,金融领域从业者本身就是一群社交需求极强的人,金融职场社交是一件自然要做的事。
职场社交市场目前已经相当热闹,“赤兔”、“脉脉”、“机遇”各显神通,这些 LinkedIn 的中国门徒一直要思考的是“如何持续让职场人士在平台上找到价值?”,这或许也是“职业梦”做社交要思考的问题。
来源:36氪,作者:饭遥
【印度】TracxnLabs为雇佣平台ZenRadius注入启动资金
导语:总部设在印度班加罗尔的网络招聘平台ZenRadius帮助企业,特别是初创企业,通过职业社交网络网罗到合适的应聘者。
由Flipkart联合创始人及Anzy Careers的Deepak Singh 所共同支持的创业孵化器TraxcnLabs近日为招聘平台ZenRadius注入了一笔数额不详的启动资金。
这家由Nitesh Mishra,Arpit Kumar 及Alok Yadav所创办的班加罗尔网络招聘平台帮助企业,特别是初创企业,通过职业社交网络网罗到合适的应聘者。
世界间的联系已经变得越来越千丝万缕,在不久的将来,利用这些丰富的人际网络来网罗适宜的应聘者正在成为招聘的重要方式。
·ZenRadius如何工作?
用户可通过电子邮箱地址登录ZenRadius平台,然后输入职位或求职的关键词。该平台会自动从用户自己的联系人列表中进行匹配并推送相关信息。
为了与被推荐者取得联系,用户需要编写一封标准邮件来对职位要求进行详细描述,仅需单击一下,该平台就能向所有潜在应聘者发送个性化邮件。
此后,平台的数据分析系统将会显示有哪些人已经阅读了该邮件,并对这些推荐候选人对于职位的兴趣度进行评估。
当一家企业或是招聘公司使用该平台进行招聘时,尽管应聘者能够与诸多联系人取得联系,但是其简历只会被自动发送至职位发布者(而非推荐人)的手中,这样做是为了表达对职位发布者的尊重,因为他们拥有挑选适宜求职者的职业裁量权。
职位发布者能够看到某位求职者的所有推荐人有哪些,因此,雇主就可以利用这些不同的信息渠道来对求职者的背景进行交叉比对,以确保求职人信息的真实性。
“以前,亲朋好友或是工作伙伴经常问我们能否为他们公司的空缺职位推荐合适的应聘者,这给了我们灵感。通过某个人的人际圈所完成的雇佣过程,虽然非常有效,但是也很麻烦,实际上,没人会为了找到更好的求职者而对自己圈子里已经存在的资源进行广泛利用,”Mishra说。
“作为职业人的我们,通常会对自己圈子中其他专业人士的才能非常熟悉,并且能够很好的为某个具体职位推荐合适人选,这是一个基本事实,”他补充道。
在打造ZenRadius平台之前,该公司的核心团队所创办的第一家初创企业名为Smokelift Technologies,主要为Olacabs、Practo、Acceltrade及StudyPad等公司提供包括大数据基础设施服务在内的可扩展分析服务。
Tracxn的创始人Abhishek Goyal表示,“多年来,我们见证了通过共同朋友所完成的雇佣具有更高的成功率,特别是当我们有职位空缺的时候(而不是求职),但是通过人脉寻找求职者的过程非常累人。我们认为科技可以大大简化这一过程。”
目前,TracxnLabs已经完成了对两家初创企业所进行的投资,分别是美容服务移动市场StayGlad和按需物流企业Parcelled。
Hiring platform ZenRadius raises seed funding from TracxnLabs
Hiring platform ZenRadius has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding fromTraxcnLabs, an incubator backed by Flipkart Co-founders and Deepak Singh of Anzy Careers.
Founded by Nitesh Mishra, Arpit Kumar and Alok Yadav, this Bangalore-based network hiring platform enables firms, especially startups, to hire the right candidates through professional networking.
The world is getting more socially and professional connected and making use of these already enriched networks to obtain the right candidates is going to become the key method of hiring in the near future.
How does the platform work?
A user can log in to the ZenRadius platform with an email address and enter keywords of the professional vacancy or requirement. The platform automatically pulls out appropriate references from the user’s own contact list and suggests new ones.
To contact the referred professionals, the user types a standard mail detailing about the job requirement. The platform then sends personalised emails to all the potential candidates in a click.
Further, the platform analytics shows data on who has opened the emails and provides a way to assess the interest of referred candidates in the available jobs.
If a company/recruitment firm uses the platform, despite employees referring job vacancies to multiple contacts, CVs are automatically routed to only the Job Creator (and not the referrers) honouring the fact that only the Job Creator must have the professional discretion to choose the right candidate.
The Job Creator is able to see all the people who might have referred the same candidate. Hence, backgrounds could be crosschecked from multiple sources to ensure the authenticity of candidates.
“We were often asked by both our personal and professional contacts if we could recommend potential candidates for job opportunities in their companies? This got us thinking. The entire process of hiring through one’s network, though very effective, is very cumbersome and no one is actually using the data which is already present within their networks to get better candidates,” said Mishra.
“It is a basic fact that as professionals we are usually familiar with the skill sets and talents of other professionals within our circles and are in a better position to suggest the names of ‘likeminded’ professionals who would be most suited to specific job positions,” he added.
Prior to developing the ZenRadius platform, the core team founded its first startup Smokelift Technologies and developed scalable analytics involving Big Data infrastructure services for Olacabs, Practo, Acceltrade and StudyPad.
Abhishek Goyal, Founder of Tracxn said, “Over the years, we have seen that people we hired through common friends had much higher degree of success more specifically when we asked for people (and not inbound), but the process of finding people through network was very tiring. We thought technology could simplify this process significantly.”
TracxnLabs has already invested in two startups StayGlad, a mobile marketplace for beauty services, and Parcelled, an on-demand logistics startup.
via e27
大数据服务平台Cazena获2000万美元B轮融资Cazena,一家帮助企业处理数据的新平台,今天宣布已获2000万美元B轮融资,融资由Formation 8领投。其他的投资方包括Andreessen Horowitz和North Bridge Venture Partners,他们也参与了去年十月Cazena800万美元的A轮融资。
Cazena由部分Netezza的前任员工创办,Prat Moghe是公司的领头人。2010年Netezza被IBM收购时,他担任数据监察部门总经理,收购后,任职高级副总裁,负责产品、战略和市场营销。
在IBM干了一段时间后,Moghe觉得是时候用新的视角来解决Netezza曾遭遇的一些问题了。“在看到企业都是如何同全新的大数据堆栈(如Hadoop,一种分布式系统基础架构)挣扎较劲的情况下,我们开始思考下一个十年数据处理的前景,”他说道。“每一个企业,尤其是中大型企业,都在积极寻找着能提高进程灵敏度的云方法,但是现有平台的复杂性和安全问题是很大的障碍。”
Cazena 的目标是极大简化商业中的大数据进程处理。Moghe设想,最终的理想状态是,使用Cazena时只需点三下,就能设置好数据处理工作(当然现阶段还有一些问题需要解决)。
这项服务通过自动搜寻到,处理设定数据组的分析技术方案,从而解决掉处理的复杂性。接下来,它会替客户自动的规定、优化和管理工作流程,无论是Hadoop、Spark、MPP还是SQL9(如Amazon Redshift)类型的结构。
根据你的工作量和其他标准,如价格或是你想要获得结果的速度,Cazena会为你提供适当的基础结构,然后全程关注进度。“最终,数据即服务成为一个新的分类,我们希望能助企业一臂之力,让他们用好云计算。”
Cazena花费了约两年的时间,才公开他们的新产品。但Moghe说,公司尚在和一小部分大型企业合作,进行β测试,现在还没有达到完全开放服务的阶段。
当准备就绪的时候,Cazena会使用相对特别的定价计划。Moghe说,计划是针对服务,包括所有的云计算成本、支持和SLA开销,收取单一费用。他认为,目前针对云处理的收费系统,如gigabyte、note,对企业而言结果都太难预测。
公司的这一轮融资资金,将会用于技术开发、销售推广和合作伙伴建设。
Cazena Raises $20M Series B For Its Enterprise Big Data-As-A-Service Platform
Cazena, a new platform that wants to make it easier for enterprises to process their data, today announced that it has raised a $20 million Series B round led by Formation 8. Other participants include Andreessen Horowitz and North Bridge Venture Partners, who both also participated in the company’s $8 million series A round last October.
Cazena was founded by a number of former Netezza employees and is now led by Prat Moghe, who was Netezza’s general manager for data compliance before its acquisition by IBM in 2010. He then became the senior vice president for strategy, product and marketing at Netezza under IBM’s ownership.
After a few years at IBM, Moghe decided that it was time to look at some of the problems Netezza was trying to solve from a fresh perspective. “We started thinking about the next decade of data processing and how enterprises are struggling with the new big data stacks like Hadoop,” he told us. “Every enterprise — and particular the medium to large enterprises — they were actively looking at the cloud to speed up the agility of processing. But they were being held back by the complexity and security issues [of the existing platforms].”
Cazena aims to greatly simplify big data processing for businesses. Ideally, it should only take three clicks to set up a data processing job with Cazena, Moghe believes (though in reality, it’s still a bit more involved right now). The service strips away the complexities by trying to automatically figure out what technology to use to analyze a given set of data. It then automatically provisions, optimizes and manages that workflow for its customers, no matter whether it’s a Hadoop, Spark or MPP SQL (think Amazon Redshift) job.
Depending on your workload and other criteria like price or how fast you need the results, Cazena will provision the right infrastructure for you and then take care of the processing. “Ultimately, data as a service is a new category and we want to help big enterprises get into the cloud,” Moghe said.
It took the Cazena about two years to get to this point where it’s openly talking about the new product. But while Moghe told me that the company is already running some beta tests with a small number of large companies, Cazena isn’t quite ready to open up its service to all yet.
Once it does launch, though, it will do so with a relatively unusual pricing plan. Moghe tells me that the plan is to charge a single fee for the service that will include all of the cloud costs, support and an SLA. He argues that current cloud processing systems that charge by gigabyte or node are too unpredictable for enterprises.
The new funding the company announced today will go toward building out the company’s technology, sales force and partnerships.
来源:tc
投融资
2015年07月23日
投融资
客户体验管理平台Medallia获1.5亿美元融资
提供客户体验管理云服务(SaaS)的Medallia刚刚获得了红杉资本的1.5亿美元融资,估值已达12.5亿美元。
Medallia是一家提供客户体验管理软件即服务(SaaS)的初创企业,成立于2001年,总部位于Palo Alto,现有员工700人。
客户关系管理(CRM)与客户体验管理(CEM)都是与客户打交道的平台,所不同的是前者主要负责前期跟踪和管理销售交互,而后者则是在售后对客户数据进行分析以提供更好的服务。
Medallia的SaaS CEM平台可以从web(网上评论)、社交媒体、移动以及联络中心收集客户反馈,对收集到的数据进行实时分析并采取行动,从而改善客户体验、提高客户忠诚度、留存率并推动收入增长。与竞争对手相比,Medallia 的Insights服务是其差异化优势,该洞察服务可以在客户遇到问题时提供实时分析。
Medallia的服务主要针对6个行业,其中包括零售、金融服务、酒店、电信、汽车以及B2B提供商。Verizon、Macy’s、Sephora、SAP、Honeywell、富国银行、索尼、Four Seasons、Sodexo及梅赛德斯等均是它的客户。
跟前几轮一样,这次的融资仍由红杉资本领投(尽管成立很早,但Medallia直到2011年才开始第一轮融资),所得融资将用于新功能开发并进行市场扩张。此轮过后,Medallia的总融资额已达2.55亿美元,下一步应该就是IPO了。
Medallia Raises $150 Million in Equity Financing to Continue Rapid Growth
PALO ALTO, Calif., July 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Medallia®, a leading SaaS provider of Customer Experience Management (CEM) solutions, today announced that it has raised $150 million in growth equity capital in a round led by Sequoia Capital. This new investment follows a period of rapid growth, during which Medallia welcomed a number of additional large enterprise customers to its client base, substantially grew revenue, launched partnerships with several prominent professional services firms and expanded its global operating footprint.
"Consumers are increasingly making purchase decisions based on customer experience data like online reviews and social media feedback rather than pre-existing brand recognition. To deliver consistently great experiences, leading companies are shifting from merely collecting customer feedback to engaging with consumers and embedding their feedback directly into operations," said Borge Hald, CEO and co-founder of Medallia. "Our recent round of funding is an important step in our journey to build customer experience into the DNA of the world's companies and change the way they operate."
Medallia first raised venture funding in late 2011, and has now raised a total of $255 million. The company plans to use this most recent investment in a two-pronged plan to further enhance its operations, with a focus on:
Developing additional new product capabilities and tools; and
Expanding its operating footprint in major markets, building on a global team that has doubled in size to over 700 employees in the past 18 months.
"Medallia is helping the world's top brands increase loyalty, grow their businesses, and deliver unforgettable customer experiences," said Douglas Leone, Medallia board member and Sequoia Capital partner. "Their rocketing growth will only continue as more companies recognize that in today's age, effectively managing the customer experience is no longer a choice. It's a win-or-lose necessity."
This funding builds on a number of milestones during recent months. Medallia has:
Allied with leading global system integrators and customer experience experts, including J.D. Power and Appirio, that have launched implementation and program management practices for the Medallia platform;
Welcomed companies, including SAP, Mazda and DIRECTV, to its client base, joining such customer experience leaders as Four Seasons and Zurich Insurance Group;
Added seasoned industry veterans to its board of directors, including LinkedIn and Palo Alto Networks board member and audit committee chair Stan Meresman, and former Netflix CMO Leslie Kilgore; and
Appointed proven financial leader and former Polycom CFO Mike Kourey as CFO.
About Medallia
Medallia® is the Customer Experience Management company that is trusted by hundreds of the world's leading brands. Medallia's Software-as-a-Service application enables companies to capture customer feedback everywhere the customer is (including web, social, mobile, and contact center channels), understand it in real time, and deliver insights and action everywhere—from the C-suite to the frontline—to improve their performance. Founded in 2001, Medallia has offices in Silicon Valley, New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and Buenos Aires. Learn more at www.Medallia.com.
来源:prnewswire
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130314/SF76927LOGO
投融资
2015年07月22日
投融资
澳大利亚线上顾问平台Expert360获得310万A轮融资
导语:这笔融资将会用于扩大其顾问支持团队,并且增加更多企业级服务。HRTechChina也报道过专注中小企业咨询的 “收费版知乎”的“答赏”,“答赏”是通过垂直领域的专业问答涉足在线咨询,为企业经营者提供解决问题方案的,致力打造最有价值的商业分享和人脉社区。国外方面,连接企业家和高级顾问和行业专家的Clarity也与之相类似。
澳大利亚Expert360是一家提供高端顾问服务的平台,近日该公司获得了410万澳元(约合310万美元)的A轮融资,领投方是Frontier Ventures风投公司。
这笔融资将会用于扩大其顾问支持团队,在研究、数据、以及其他知识产品方面提供服务。此外据Expert360联合创始人兼首席运营官Emily Yue透露,该融资还会用于Expert360增加更多企业级服务,一些从大企业退休的高管将会加入到Expert360的顾问人才团队,客户还能获得专属项目经理的支持。
据了解,目前全球顾问行业的市值已经达到了3500亿美元。
参与本轮投资的还有澳大利亚本土科技基金Rampersand,一批机构投资人,现有股东,和高净值投资人(比如Macquarie银行前任总经理Allan Moss AO)。本轮投资之后,Frontier Ventures风投创始人Dmitry Alimov将会加入到Expert360公司董事会。
Alimov说道,“线上顾问服务具有颠覆全球顾问行业的潜力,而Expert360则是此领域里的佼佼者。他们突破了传统的咨询顾问方法,利用科技的力量,全球互联,以及个体性专长,为客户提供优秀的解决方案。Expert360团队给我们留下了深刻印象,他们的执行力非常快,产品质量和发展轨迹也很不错。我们非常高兴能够重新回到线上顾问服务行业。我们的目标,就是帮助该公司的联合创始人和他们的团队,把这项事业推向新的。”
Expert360公司成立于2013年,他们在全世界拥有超过4500名专业顾问,企业客户可以轻松地与旗下顾问联系,获得帮助。根据该公司官方信息,目前Expert360总部设在悉尼,在澳大利亚和东南亚拥有15名全职员工。
Bridget Loudon是该公司首席执行官兼联合创始人,她说道,“我们的公司愿景非常简单,就是希望利用科技的力量,帮助客户或是客户的项目得到优质的顾问服务,让他们能够随时随地的获得顾问价值。我们非常高兴,因为有一批非常棒的投资人帮助我们将Expert360推上一个新台阶。我们的领投方,Frontier Ventures风投,在全球市场有着丰富且有价值的专业经验,我们非常期待与他们合作。”
Frontier Ventures是一家专门在全球新兴市场从事互联网领域投资的风投公司,他们主要关注东南亚和俄罗斯的消费互联网服务。该风投的投资组合包括亚洲餐厅预订平台Chope,俄罗斯线上视频公司ivi.ru,以及俄罗斯和独联体的线上企业服务平台profi.ru。本次对Expert360的投资,是他们第十笔线上服务平台类投资,也是他们在亚太地区的第二笔投资。
Frontier Ventures leads US$3.1M Series A round in Australia’s Expert360
Frontier Ventures has led an oversubscribed AU$4.1 million (US$3.1 million) round raised by Australian consulting marketplace Expert360.
The newly raised capital will see the company expand its support for consultants through access to research, data and other IP. The money will also be used to expand its enterprise services offerings so that executives in larger organisations can get instant access to a pool of consulting talent and support from a dedicated project manager, shared Expert360’s Co-founder and COO Emily Yue.
The global consulting industry is worth US$350 billion.
Co-investors in the round include Australian technology fund rampersand, institutional investors, existing shareholders, and high net worth individuals such as former Macquarie Bank MD Allan Moss AO.
Frontier Ventures Founder Dmitry Alimov will join the company’s Board of Directors.
Alimov said, “Expert360 is a leading marketplace for online consulting services with potential to disrupt a massive global industry. It breaks apart traditional consulting methodology by using the power of technology, global connectivity and individual expertise to provide superior client solutions. We are very impressed by the company’s team, its speed of execution, product quality and outstanding growth trajectory. We know online service marketplaces and we’re excited to back this one. Our goal is to help Bridget, Emily (Co-founders) and the Expert360 team take this business to a new level.”
Launched in 2013, Expert360 connects consultants with companies and has more than 4,500 independent consultants available from around the world. From an initial small team in Sydney, it now has 15 full-time employees across Australia and Southeast Asia, said an official release.
Bridget Loudon, CEO and Co-founder of Expert360 said, “Our vision is simple: it’s about harnessing technology to connect clients and their projects with great consultants, anywhere, anytime and in a way that delivers outstanding value for both parties. We’re extremely excited to have a great set of investors on board to help us take Expert360 to the next level. Our lead investor, Frontier Ventures, brings a wealth of global marketplace expertise that will be very valuable. We look forward to working with them.”
Frontier Ventures is a venture fund focussed on Internet investments in global emerging markets, with a main focus on consumer Internet services in Southeast Asia and Russia. Its portfolio includes Asia’s restaurant reservation platform Chope, Russia’s online video company ivi.ru and online marketplace business in Russia and CIS profi.ru. This investment marks the 10th online marketplace in Frontier Ventures’ portfolio and the fund’s second deal in the APAC region.
来自:e27
投融资
2015年07月21日
投融资
HackerRank近日获得七百五十万美元投资[caption id="attachment_8176" align="alignnone" width="720"] Tech Hiring Matchmaker HackerRank Draws $7.5M From Global HR Firm[/caption]
HackerRank近日获得七百五十万美元投资
程序员招聘竞赛平台HackerRank近日宣布从日本人力资源巨头Recruit获得七百五十万美元投资。HackerRank让应聘者在线完成真实项目的编程挑战,从而来为企业筛选出能力优秀、符合招聘需求的技术人员。HackerRank的联合创始人兼首席执行官Vivek Ravisankar表示, Recruit成为股东将有助于HackerRank扩展在亚太地区的业务。Recruit可以成为HackerRank在亚太地区企业和应聘者的入口。
去年11月有报道国内有一家Hackerrank 的平台:
HackerRank模式的中国尝试者:oxcoder让程序猿在线完成项目挑战来帮企业做招聘笔试
http://www.hrtechchina.com/archives/4383
原文来自:
http://www.xconomy.com/san-francisco/2015/07/14/tech-hiring-matchmaker-hackerrank-draws-7-5m-from-global-hr-firm/
HackerRank, which hosts online competitions that help programmers flaunt their skills to potential employers like Amazon and Quora, said today it has landed a $7.5 million investment from the funding arm of Japan-based human resources giant Recruit.
The new alliance with Recruit will help Palo Alto, CA-based HackerRank scale up its business in the Asia Pacific region, CEO and co-founder Vivek Ravisankar says. Recruit could be HackerRank’s gateway to both employers and job candidates in that part of the world, he says.
HackerRank counts as customers more than a thousand employers such as Walmart, Bloomberg, and Morgan Stanley, which pay for access to programmers who score high in HackerRank’s online coding challenges, Ravisankar says. All have made at least one hire facilitated by HackerRank, he says. Recruit itself is not a client—yet.
“I think we’ll get them soon,” Ravisankar (pictured above) says.
Ravisankar and his co-founder Harishankaran Karunanidhi, who started the company in 2012, want to change the way tech workers and employers find each other. Under traditional staff search processes, tech applicants send their resumes into the “black hole” of company hiring departments, while recruiters spend hours sifting through resumes to find good prospects, Ravisankar says. Employers may then spend weeks doing interviews to try to gauge the applicants’ actual technical abilities.
HackerRank’s competitions are designed to speed up that process, and open opportunities to people regardless of their gender, race, location, or the prestige of their university degrees. Hackers can log in to the site to improve their skills, compete in challenges, and gain rankings across a range of specific areas such as algorithms, machine learning, and streamlining code. For employers looking to hire skilled new tech team members, it’s kind of like consulting a Moneyball analysis of programmers, Ravisankar says.
“They’re getting to talk to high-quality candidates from the start,” Ravisankar says. HackerRank has screened more than a million developers over the last couple of years, he says. More than 150,000 active programmers used the site over the past month.
In addition to the chance of getting a job offer, hackers can win cash prizes or tech toys such as GoPro cameras, drones, and laptops by performing well in the contests.
HackerRank has built a reputation as “the go-to community for tech talent analysis,” HR Technology Fund president Chihiro Ueda said in a statement about the Recruit fund’s investment in the startup. “As the demand for technology talent continues to outstrip supply, HackerRank offers an efficient way for HR professionals to evaluate talent beyond traditional means.’’
The Recruit fund’s investment brings HackerRank’s total fundraising to $17 million. The company’s earlier financial backing came from Y Combinator, Khosla Ventures, and Battery Ventures, among other investors. Ravisankar says HackerRank’s competitors include companies such as San Francisco-based recruiting software company Gild. Gild compiles profiles of working professionals from dozens of sites, and helps employers find those who best match their needs.
HackerRank’s clients include small to medium-sized businesses as well as larger enterprises, Ravisankar says. The company charges fees of $5,000 to $10,000 a year, per user, depending on the extra features clients want to add. These include CodePair, a skills-testing tool employers can use during the interview process. HackerRank also enables companies to set up their own hacker challenges on their websites’ career landing pages.
Ravisankar says he expects HackerRank’s revenues to reach “the double-digits of millions of dollars” in the next three to four months. The company may double its current staff size of 120 within a year, he says.
HackerRank is one of a growing number of online forums where programmers can demonstrate their computer science skills, outside the academic credentialing system of degrees from accredited colleges and universities. For example, Utah-based online learning company Pluralsight offers skills tests through its divisionSmarterer, and hackers can showcase their work on tech projects throughGitHub.
HackerRank is also making inroads into the academic system. Professors at 74 colleges are using HackerRank’s challenge infrastructure at no charge to set programming tasks for their students, rather than posting the assignments via e-mail, downloading each student’s work, and computing the rankings themselves. Once the classroom service becomes better known, HackerRank will market it as a product to colleges and universities, Ravisankar says.
But HackerRank will remain an avenue of opportunity for people who have never earned a degree, says Ravisankar. The company’s core mission is to create a meritocratic route to tech employment, he says. Fees will never be charged to hackers entering one of the company’s coding contests, he says.
“They will never pay,” Ravisankar says. “It will always be free forever.”