AI Recruitment Provider AllyO Secures $45 Million in Funding
June 10, 2019 – AllyO, a Mountain View, CA-based company developing AI-powered job recruitment products, has completed a series B financing round with $45 million in venture capital, contributed largely by Sapphire Ventures and Scale Venture Partners, as well as existing investors Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), Randstad Innovation Fund, Bain Capital Ventures and Cervin Ventures.
The round brings AllyO’s total raised to $64 million, which co-founder Sahil Sahni said will help to further develop the company’s products and expand its reach. That work seems well underway: AllyO grew 4.5 times in the past year, said Mr. Sahni, who added that he expects the company’s candidate-matching suite to be used by as many as 15 percent of Americans in 2020.
“At AllyO, we aim to make recruiting more delightful and efficient for everyone,” said Mr. Sahni, who founded AllyO in 2015 with former Oracle data center architect Ankit Somani. “The AllyO team works very hard prioritizing customer success, generating clear ROI for the world’s largest employers. We are humbled by our exponential growth but also acknowledge the excitement of being able to see the path to an IPO in around 3 years. Partnering with [Sapphire] and [Scale] will aid this significantly.”
“AllyO’s tools tap conversational AI to quickly identify qualified job seekers, automate recruiting processes, and deliver actionable insights to hiring managers,” said Mr. Sahni. “They don’t pigeonhole customers into particular platforms or recruiting flows. Rather, AllyO’s tech integrates with existing career pages, job boards, text and post apps, and referrals on LinkedIn, Monster, and Indeed, plus social media networks like Twitter and Facebook and human capital management suites like SAP SuccessFactors and Taleo.”
From AllyO’s settings panel, administrators can configure smart workflows that automate screening, scheduling (via Google Calendar, Exchange, and Outlook), and periodic post-hiring check-ins, said the company. These, in turn, might prompt a job seeker to fill in missing profile information, to keep the database up to date, for instance, or proactively contact would-be employees with best-fit opportunities to determine their interest.
AllyO has attracted clients in the Fortune 50, as well as brands like Avis Budget Group, Cheesecake Factory, Pitney Bowes and Brinker International. To date, AllyO’s platform has processed millions of applicant interactions and facilitated the scheduling of over 100,000 interviews, said Mr. Sahni.
“AllyO is a fast-growth start-up that has helped some of the largest employers staff up their teams quickly,” said Sapphire Ventures president Jai Das, who said he intends to join AllyO’s board of directors. “In some instances, customers have gone from a proof of concept to enterprise-wide usage of AllyO to help them hire the best employees. Sapphire Ventures is delighted to invest in AllyO as they rapidly scale their business, and I look forward to their digitizing the ancient industry of hiring in the process.”
Investment Funding
Investors are pouring money into recruiting solutions businesses, especially those with an AI component. Here’s a look at some recent funding deals secured by these companies from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Talent acquisition platform SmartRecruiters has raised a $50 million series D round, led by repeat investor Insight Partners and joined by long-time investors Mayfield and Rembrandt Venture Partners. The round follows a year marked by strong performance, including 100 percent year-over-year enterprise growth and the launch of SmartAssistant, a native AI product ever offered within a talent acquisition product suite, said SmartRecruiters.
humanpredictions, a machine learning technology company, has received a $1.16 million funding round led by Network Ventures with additional investment from Hyde Park Angels, SaaS Ventures and M25. The new capital is targeted to help humanpredictions further grow and invest in its team of engineers and data scientists.
Hireology, a Chicago-based recruitment management platform, closed $27 million in series D financing led by Blue Cloud Ventures, with full participation from current investors Bain Capital Ventures and Baird Venture Partners, as well as Silicon Valley Bank. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s growth in new market verticals and to create features that further differentiate its product offering.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
