ZRG Closes Secondary Equity Investment

December 15, 2022 – ZRG, a global talent advisory firm and portfolio company of a global talent advisory firm and portfolio company of RFE Investment Partners, today announced that it has secured a new secondary equity investment from a consortium of new and existing institutional investors led by Timber Bay Partners. “We see tremendous opportunity to acquire great businesses in the recruiting and talent advisory areas that will augment our organic growth across all of our business lines,” said Larry Hartmann, CEO of ZRG. “The new equity capital and expanded credit facility provide ample dry powder for our organic and acquisition growth plans. Additionally, we will continue to invest in our disruptive Zi technology platform and grow our interim and consulting businesses in tandem with our core executive recruiting deliverables.”

This new capital will accelerate ZRG’s acquisition and hiring efforts as the company continues to build-out a full suite of offerings to help clients solve people problems.

The new equity round included increased support from existing investors as well as a number of new institutions. RFE will manage the new equity consortium and will maintain a control equity position.

Concurrent with the new equity investment in the company, ZRG also announced the closing of a new and expanded senior credit facility led by Truist Bank. Proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt and provide additional capital for future growth.

“ZRG has an exceptional track record of supporting and growing acquired companies that have all thrived under ZRG’s resources and unique culture,” said Michael Rubel, managing director at RFE. “This new capital accelerates our strategy of partnering with great new human capital people and brands.”

Atlantic-Pacific Capital served as exclusive global financial advisor and placement agent. Truist Bank served as the sole lead arranger for the new credit facility. Specific financial terms are not disclosed.

Recent Acquisition

In line with this strategic fundraising, ZRG announced on December 6 that is acquired Hub Recruiting, a tech enabled RPO provider to address volume hiring needs globally.  “Increasingly, our clients have asked for support for volume hiring in complex sales, engineering, and technical roles, but we did not have that capability,” said Mr. Hartmann. “Hub adds that capability, enabling us to support recruiting for project-based, volume hiring of more senior roles globally. We believe when a company aligns strategy and culture with the right talent, amazing success can be achieved, and our offerings now address these core areas. We constantly strive to improve ourselves in order to improve client outcomes.”

Based out of Bedford, MA, Hub Recruiting is an RPO that partners with growing technology companies by providing embedded recruiters and/or entire recruiting teams for hiring challenges that range from one hire to entire, organizational buildouts. Hub’s approach combines recruiters and sourcers, ongoing training and coaching, and integrated tools including data analytics – called Full Stack RPO. Their key focus areas include technology driven companies who are building their technology, revenue, and corporate functions, nationally and internationally.

Investment Funding

Here’s a look at some other recent funding deals secured by these companies from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

Chicago-headquartered referral recruiting service Hunt Club has raised $40 million Series B round co-led by WestCap and Sator Grove. The investment round follows Hunt Club’s $10 million Series A financing in October 2021, and will fuel the company’s national expansion, technology platform enhancements, and broaden its community of over 20,000 business leaders who help connect the most innovative companies to the world’s top candidates. “We’re reimagining the entire talent process. Top talent leaders are not only hard to find, but they are hard to reach – and traditional recruiting firms aren’t equipped to innovate for their customers,” said Nick Cromydas, co-founder and CEO of Hunt Club. “Our technology is bridging that gap, introducing a personalized approach to helping companies change the way they approach talent acquisition. Hunt Club is proud to partner with WestCap, a premier growth equity firm led by a team that has founded, invested in, and operated tech-enabled marketplaces such as Airbnb for over 20 years.”

SeekOut has announced a $115 million series C funding round led by Tiger Global Management. The round values the Seattle-based company – an artificial intelligence-powered talent search engine – at more than $1.2 billion. “The Great Resignation remains top of mind for both employees and employers as we enter 2022,” said Matthew Merker, research manager, talent acquisition and strategy at IDC. “The way employees look for work opportunities has fundamentally changed, and employers need to rethink how they find new talent and retain existing talent. SeekOut’s data-driven Talent 360 platform offers organizations an advanced set of capabilities that help ease this transition and redefine enterprise talent optimization moving forward.”

Hirewell, a Chicago-based talent acquisition firm, secured an investment of $21 million from Prytek, a global investment firm with expertise in integrating global services firms with cutting-edge technologies. Prytek will provide capital to enable Hirewell to accelerate its organic growth and integrate technology into its managed recruiting services. As part of this investment, Hirewell will acquire ICV, a Tel Aviv-based software company. “The talent acquisition space has evolved significantly over the past ten years, but technology has yet to truly disrupt the industry,” said Matt Massucci, founder and CEO of Hirewell. “Recruiters increasingly rely on multiple platforms, most of which don’t integrate or have limited functionality, and some of which actually compete with the recruiters they claim to support. The ability to combine best-in-class recruiters with cutting-edge technology will equip us to be the ideal recruiting partner for companies that are serious about finding top talent. We are thrilled to partner with Prytek to take that step and continue delivering powerful results to our clients.”

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. Founded in 2017, Worksome is an enterprise platform that connects companies with freelancers looking for professional roles. The company helps medium and large companies, working with many freelancers at a time, filling vacancies within teams rather than assisting companies in outsourcing projects. According to Worksome CEO and co-founder Morten Petersen, most enterprises use managed service providers (MSPs) to manage and pay external workers. He said that they use “outdated technology that is not built for managing fluid workforces to handle complex compliance processes around hiring and managing freelance workforces.”

SeekOut, the AI-powered talent 360 platform, has received $65 million in series B funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group and Mayfield. This capital raise brings SeekOut’s total funding to $73 million. This funding round values SeekOut at close to half a billion dollars. SeekOut’s growth and expansion has been driven by the critical role it plays in empowering talent acquisition teams to recruit hard-to-find and diverse talent. SeekOut has consistently received high scores and strong reviews in analyst and customer assessments. 

GoodJob, a platform that aims to use psychology and data science to match workers with jobs, recently raised $3 million to increase marketing and sales efforts in major markets across the U.S. “GoodJob’s solution is ideal for today’s market,” said Stephen D. Johnston, CEO of GoodJob. “Prior to an interview and without introducing bias, employers can quickly assess a candidate’s fit on the front end of the hiring process,” said Mr. Johnston. “This approach allows companies to spend time only on candidates who have a high probability of success, which significantly impacts hiring efficiency, especially as companies move to no-touch hiring practices.”

Turing.com, which describes itself as an automated platform that enables companies to use and manage remote software developers, has assembled $32 million Series B funding. The capitalization round was led by $3.3 billion fund WestBridge Capital. The round includes a number of high-profile investors, including Foundation Capital, which led Turing’s seed round. Altair Capital, Mindset Ventures, Frontier Ventures and Gaingels also participated in the Series B round. Driven by the massive global shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Turing taps into a global pool of developers to help companies hire in markets such as the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, where it has been difficult and expensive to hire and retain software engineers.

The Mom Project, a talent marketplace, closed a $25 million series B funding round, bringing total funding at the Chicago-based company to $36 million. The Mom Project aims to connect women, including mothers, with employment opportunities. Its platform has amassed more than 275,000 users and more than 2,000 companies, including brands like Apple, Nike, Gap and BP. “Together we’ve proven that hiring, retaining and supporting moms and caregivers isn’t just a nice thing to do — it’s great for business,” said Allison Robinson, founder and CEO. “We’re in a unique moment in time where companies are embracing flexible work and prioritizing inclusion, and are excited to rapidly accelerate our efforts to unlock the potential of moms in the workplace. Our latest round of funding will help expand our Enterprise product suite, build out our mom community engagement strategy and engage with more small business customers.”

Related: LCap Group Invests in Rowan Executive Search

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media