Shortlist raises $2m series A to help firms identify hidden talent
Shortlist has raised $2 million series A led by Blue Haven Initiative, with participation from Compass Venture Capital, existing investor Zephyr Acorn, and several others.
According to Shortlist CEO and Co- Founder Paul Breloff, the funding will allow the firm to build out its vision for how companies in Africa and India build their teams.
“We’re building Shortlist to be a scalable way to collect signals that really matter, like demonstrated skills, interests, aspirations, work style preferences, and motivation — and use them to match the right jobseeker with the right company at the right time,” he said in a blog post.
Shortlist is used by more than 300 clients and 400,000+ jobseekers. The new raise will help it built a platform to know candidates better — their passions, personalities, and potential — and to use that data to find them jobs they love.
“We believe in a future where every team is comprised of the best-fit professionals, the job application process is human, transparent, and fair, and professional potential is unlocked across Africa and India — and beyond! We’re so grateful to have a group of dedicated investors who believe in this future too, and are joining the adventure.”
Though digital transformation is changing the world of HR and recruiting, Shortlist says this innovation is missing something essential, and (nearly) all of it is built for markets other than ours.
According to Breloff, these days, innovation in HR champion artificial intelligence and machine learning helping companies change the lives of hiring managers by pulling information from CVs, scraping keyword data from social networks like LinkedIn, and applying natural language processing to job descriptions. However, job descriptions are often thoughtless cut-and-paste efforts, CVs are just retrospectives and miss potential, and LinkedIn keywords are self-reported and unvalidated.
Shortlist is therefore finding new ways to identify hidden talent as most firm won’t be able to build the teams they need to succeed, and at the same time making it easier for youth to find steady jobs. Source: Kenyan Digest
