Talent Engagement Platform Sense, on Thursday announced that it has acquired recruitment platform Skillate for an undisclosed amount. Post-acquisition, the three founders of Skillate – Bipul Vaibhav, Anand Kumar and Kumar Sambhav – will join Sense.
Sense is an artificial intelligence-driven talent engagement platform. With the acquisition, the startup will integrate Skillate’s AI-powered hiring services, including candidate matching, job distribution, job description assistance, and talent relationship management into its suite of offerings.
Sense claims that it serves more than 700 customers, which includes brands such as Sony, Coca Cola and Anheuser-Busch along with the majority of unicorns in India. In 2022 so far, the startup has facilitated more than 3 million hirings, according to its official website.
Sense is backed by Softbank, Avataar Ventures, Accel, and Google Ventures as its other marquee investors. The startup last raised a $50 million Series D from Softbank in 2021. To date, it has raised $90 million.
“To remain competitive in the recruiting & talent acquisition industry, innovation is key…the acquisition of Skillate will further advance our ongoing commitment to providing a seamless talent experience,” said Sanjay Dharmani, managing director of Sense-India.
Founded in 2016, Skillate offers a business-to-business (B2B) application that aids companies to optimise the hiring process. The company was incubated within SAP Startup Studio. The startups’ tech offerings are integrated with core human capital management platforms such as Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle Taleo, Smart Recruiters, and more.
Skillate had last raised $1 million in its pre-series A funding from angel investors in 2019. The startup also raised undisclosed seed funding from Incubate India Fund in 2017.
Skillate claims that its platform reduces 40% hiring cost and brings down the hiring time period by 65%. The company’s client list includes Adani Group, BigBasket, Byju’s, Groww, and Yes Bank, among others.
In the past few years, investors have remained bullish on the HR and performance management space. For instance, in July 2021, HR-tech startup Talview Inc raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Eileses Capital. Talview works with companies such as Amazon, Reliance Digital, and HCL and has partnered with Accenture, Allianz, Best Buy, Cognizant, Enel Group, City & Guilds, Cambridge Assessments, and the British Council.
Also, employee management platform PagarBook raised close to $15 million in its Series A round of funding led by existing investor Sequoia Capital.