Rec Tech: the Recruiting Technology Podcast Circa, Nextstep, Stella, Wizhire and Careerist
Recruiting Technology Headlines
NextStep, a mobile-based training and job placement company aiming to radically expand the supply of qualified Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) to address the nation’s caregiver shortage crisis, today announced a $3.6 million investment round from health and education technology-focused investors including Springrock Ventures, JAZZ Venture Partners, Learn Capital’s LearnStart fund, and the managing directors of Pioneer Square Labs.
NextStep’s unique program, free to students and supported by employers, is helping to retrain workers in distressed industries as Certified Nursing Assistants, the most in-demand role in health care. Through courses delivered on mobile devices in 10-15 minute modules that can be consumed during a commute or after hours, displaced workers with experience in service and hospitality roles can retrain for jobs in the health care industry with higher earning and promotion potential.
“NextStep is led by an experienced and nimble executive team that knows how to create technology-enabled solutions to meet our healthcare workforce needs,” said John Harris, managing partner at JAZZ Venture Partners. “I can’t think of any company that is better suited to having a positive impact on society and businesses in a world shaped both by the COVID crisis and an aging population.”
The investment round was led by Springrock Ventures, the url is nextstep.careers
Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America, two private investment firms, announced that they have acquired trustaff Management, Inc., a leading provider of travel nurse and allied healthcare staffing services, and CardioSolution, a managed services offering providing cardiologists and support personnel to hospitals.
As part of this transaction, Cornell Capital and Trilantic North America they also agreed to acquire Stella.ai, Inc., a VC-backed, AI-driven online marketplace for employers and job seekers that brings cutting-edge technology expertise to the staffing sector. The combination of these companies will create a leading healthcare staffing platform with a unique technology-driven approach.
In conjunction with the announcement, Adam Zoia, CEO and Co-Founder of Stella, has been named CEO of the combined company, succeeding Brent Loring, CEO of trustaff, who is retiring. STella launched as stell.ai and now operates asStella.jobs, the company pivoted at one point and appears to have given up on its current course as their platform will now pivit again to healthcare. Stella had raised $10 million back in 2017 under the guise of a shared talent network.
https://hrtechfeed.com/stella-ai-acquired-by-private-equity-firms/
WizeHire, has announced the closing of $7.5 million in Series A funding co-led by Amplo and Mercury. Additional investors include existing backers Ruchit Shah and RigUp co-founder Sandeep Jain.
WizeHire intends to use the funds to provide small businesses a faster, easier hiring experience previously only available to large corporations. That includes creating more personalized resources to address clients’ unique hiring needs, hiring more support staff and expanding its partner program to build a network of experts in its key industries of real estate, insurance, mortgage, legal and hospitality.
“WizeHire is focused on a future where small business owners have easy access to the elevated hiring experience large corporations already have,” said Amplo’s Sam Garcia, who will join WizeHire’s board. “They’re not just creating a better alternative to current recruiting solutions; they’re giving employers more peace of mind about the hiring process so they can get back to building their business.”
“We are thrilled to support WizeHire’s opportunity to define talent acquisition for small businesses,” said Heath Butler, Managing Director at Mercury, who will also join WizeHire’s board. “By systematically helping hiring managers align company values, behavioral competencies, technical skills and industry requirements to identify the best candidate, WizeHire is enabling their clients to maximize productivity, reduce turnover cost and increase customer loyalty.”
Wizehire.com is the address
https://hrtechfeed.com/wizehire-raises-7-5m-for-smb-hiring/
Circa (formerly known as Local job network) is launching AI Candidate Matching, to help companies accelerate their success toward building more diverse, innovative, and high-performing teams. The new product delivers a SaaS-based artificial intelligence solution guaranteeing unbiased sourcing and matching of diverse, qualified talent from a curated 160 million+ candidate database.
When looking to reduce or mitigate unconscious bias, AI Candidate Matching redacts ethnic, gender, age, LGBTQIA+, veteran status, community, culture, and disability to present candidates based on their skill sets to be evaluated in fair, equal and consistent manners. This includes automatically reviewing job postings and optimizing them to make it as engageable as possible for a diverse community while removing biases within the description.
AI Candidate Matching focuses on candidate sourcing and matching that reaches both active and passive candidates. The active and passive candidates are sourced from 3,500 different online organizations from community groups to service organizations that provide more than 160 million diverse candidates. The diverse candidate database network reaches 13 million veterans with approximately four million having security clearances.
https://hrtechfeed.com/circa-announces-ai-candidate-matching-product/
Careerist raised a $1.25 million Seed round of VC for its marketplace that provides training for software training and QA roles, career coaching, and job board in exchange for a percentage of the salary of any jobs found via the service.
Analyst george larouqe says...Merging education with jobs and career services isn’t a new model, neither is charging placed candidates a percentage of salary. The amount being charged and the placement success rate make this model either a vehicle/accelerant to a tech career for those who need it or something more predatory.---careerist.com
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