ATS and recruiting software provider Greenhouse’s majority shares were recently acquired by TPG, amassing a total investment of around $500 million. Their rise is all the more remarkable when you look at how the year started for Greenhouse: after the Covid-19 struck the entertainment, hospitality and travel industries (amongst others) in March, they were forced to lay-off close to a quarter of its employees.
Greenhouse: a leading one-stop-shop
While some sectors stayed behind, and are still largely at a similar point now, the tech industry blossomed — leading to a widespread need for what is now one of the hottest ATS and recruiting software providers around: with a reported revenue growth of 30% during 2020. Whether it’s candidate experience, DEI or onboarding — Greenhouse has become one of the leading one-stop-shops for recruiting solutions. With a reported 4,000 clients — ranging from smaller startups to the likes of Asana and Stripe.
Whether it’s candidate experience, DEI or onboarding — Greenhouse has become one of the leading one-stop-shops for recruiting solutions.
Private equity firm TPG liked Greenhouse’s growth so much that they invested $47 million, and bought $450 million worth of shares from existing investors. It is a clear and definitive win for applicant tracking systems, Chad Sowash notes on the Chad and Cheese Podcast. “This is something that no question puts a staple in what we’ve seen over the past couple of years that these applicant tracking systems, aren’t the old legacy types of applicant tracking systems that we once knew”, he says. “Those that just stood there, withered away and became, these old warehouses full of data that were really just difficult to manoeuvre through.”
‘The new age of tech’
Greenhouse is among a longer list of companies that Sowash dubs representatives of the new age of tech. On Sowash’s initial list, next to Greenhouse: Jobvite, iCIMS, and SmartRecruiters. “They’re really making a charge”, he adds. And with that new age, new spenders have seemingly entered the game too. That sparked Sowash and Cheesman to play a game: buy or sell.
Syndio
Up first: Syndio, an HR Analytics company focused on promoting fairness in the workplace. “Because every organisation who is touting pay equity, in most instances they’re doing it with calculators and spreadsheets”, Sowash says. As far as warning signs go, organisations have little oversight as to where it is not operating in an equal way. “While most competitors take a year to do similar analyses”, Sowash adds, “…these guys take a month.”
jobandtalent.com
Based in Madrid, Spain — JobandTalent is a leading digital temp staffing agency. Their on-demand staffing marketplace aims to make the labour market more fluid and accessible. “It’s kind of like an Uber for jobs”, Sowash says. “These guys, it seems are on the right path, if not already have the infrastructure in place to build that.”
Swyg
Dublin-based Swyg came up with an interesting ‘candidates interviewing candidates’ format. ‘You don’t want to hire robots, so why have a robot do the hiring?’, as they state on their homepage. They combine ‘human insight and integrity’ with the ‘efficiency of AI tech’ for a collaborative, and objective assessment tool which job applicants can use ‘as practice’ for their interviews. As Cheesman puts it: “They’re sort of going after chatbots and automation.”
“I think it’s, it’s a great, fuzzy, wonderful, fluffy idea, but I think this just falls flat.”
“This all sounds great, but how do you provide the data?”, Sowash says. “I think it’s, it’s a great, fuzzy, wonderful, fluffy idea, but I think this just falls flat. None of it made sense until I dug into it.”
Employee Navigator
Representing another one-stop-shop, but on the benefits, HR and compliance side of things. Maryland-based Employee Navigator serves as a HR software provider for leading insurance brokers and insurance carriers of all sizes. As far as HR management goes, their tool helps companies with the onboarding of new hires, time off and asset tracking. “It’s not exciting by any means, but this is infrastructure that you have to get right”, Cheesman says.
