Recruiter JobsTheWord attracts £500k investment
A DARESBURY-based recruitment business that uses social media to identify candidates has secured a £525,000 equity investment from the North West Fund for Venture Capital, managed by Enterprise Ventures.
JobsTheWord claims to reduce the time and cost of sourcing new employees and also help businesses to reach candidates who might not be actively searching for a job.
The funding, in exchange for a minority stake, will allow the business to increase its research and development, create new features and develop products for sectors other than recruitment.
The business was founded in 2011 by IT specialists Will Crandle and Lee Harding and angel investor Keith Jones. It has attracted clients such as WorldPay, Blackberry, Samsung, Hewlett Packard and Experian and claims to have millions of registered users.
JobsTheWord has developed its own platform, which uses complex algorithms to extract intelligence from online profiles, blogs and websites, to inform potential candidates from all backgrounds of opportunities they may never have otherwise known about.
Keith Jones said: “The web is a treasure chest of information providing insights into all aspects of our working lives. Our system transforms it into a database packed full of talent, which not only helps employers save time and money, but also to reach out to those who are not actively searching for jobs and often the best candidates.”
Will Clark, Investment Director with Enterprise Ventures, which manages the North West Fund for Venture Capital, said: “JobsTheWord is the first company in the UK to use big data in the recruitment sector, which could revolutionise the way employers search for staff. However recruitment is just one application for the technology. This investment will help the business to expand the current activities and develop big data products for other sectors too.”
The North West Fund for Venture Capital is part of the North West Fund which is backed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.
