Kandidate eyes European expansion after RiseHigh buy
Shoreditch-based HR tech firm Kandidate, which finds top talent for start-ups, is eyeing European expansion following its acquisition of talent matching platform RiseHigh.
This is according to Kandidate CEO Alex van Klaveren, commenting on a combined cash and stock deal for an undisclosed sum for RiseHigh.
RiseHigh operates what it calls a “curated” platform model for non-engineering roles at top start-ups. This model aims to puts the candidate in more control of their job search by putting them through a lengthier registration process (five to 10 minutes), asking them exactly about the sort of role they are looking for. This increases the relevance of matching, so candidates only get approached with job offers they want, rather than bombarded by roles they are not interested in.
RiseHigh has a pool of 8,000 candidates, while more than 1,000 job offers have been sent out since its launch in July 2015, representing 80 start-ups including Uber, Rocket Internet, Stuart and Gocardless.
The deal sees RiseHigh founder Jason Wong step down as CEO to focus on a new fintech venture, though he joins the Kandidate board alongside Caroline Sage, managing director at private equity firm Kea Consultants.
Commenting on the firm’s future plans following the deal, van Klaveren, who revealed Kandidate beat Silicon Valley-based recruitment pioneer Hired.com to acquire RiseHigh, told Recruiter Kandidate aims to continue building its team and technology, and an expansion into Europe is also on the cards.
“We’re going to be expanding into Europe through start-up hubs,” he explained. “If you look at Europe, in order of importance it’s probably Berlin, Barcelona, Lisbon but really there are start-up hubs being created in Stockholm – even Reykjavik. We’ve had a couple of clients approach us from Reykjavik.
“I think most major cities now are realising a start-up hub is needed. We are very UK-focused at the moment – we’re London-based. We do international roles but I would say 75% of our clients are probably in the UK.”
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