Sense, an HR tech startup that helps some of the world's largest staffing and recruitment agencies timely find and hire talent, has grown its valuation to $500 million in a new financing round, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The startup raised $50 million in a financing round. SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the financing round, pushing the five-and-a-half-year-old startup's to-date raise to $90 million. Sense closed its Series C round six months ago, and the multiple-fold surge in the valuation comes just now.
Sense helps firms manage the entire talent lifecycle at the firm.
In this world, where you need a warehouse packager to join today, companies need him or her to join, according to the co-founder and chief executive of Sense. He wouldn't comment on the valuation.
He said that most professional social networks and other recruitment platforms are designed to serve knowledge workers. He said that the challenge was not relevant for people like drivers for the ride-sharing company and warehouse workers.
He said that the startup has courted over 600 customers, including Amazon, Sears, Vaco, and Kenny, that use the Sense platform to scale their hiring.
Sense said that its customers see an average of 263% increase in the number of candidates they are able to screen using the platform and reduce the time it takes to fill roles by up to 81%.
He said that the funding was validation of the need for personalized talent engagement in today's candidate-centered world and that it was also an opportunity for the platform to help shape the future of work.
Businesses can use Sense's services to remove biases from their hiring practices.
He said that the startup has been used to hire healthcare workers.
After facing challenges in hiring talent at his previous firms, Dharni got the idea to launch Sense.
It was realized that talent is what makes or breaks a company. The company is not going to be successful if it can't attract the right people. He said that it doesn't matter what your business model is.
He said that the next startup would be about solving for the talent space.
Sense is looking for a $200 billion opportunity.
Sense has more than doubled its revenue in the past year. He said that Sense will expand in several markets including the Western Europe.
The critical nature of the Sense platform in enabling enterprise customers to find and hire quality talent faster has been clear. The Managing Partner of SoftBank Investment Advisers said that they have no doubt in their ability to positively transform how companies build great teams and compete.
