Published: Mar 11, 2019
Focus:
NPIF Maven Equity Finance
NPIF Maven Equity Finance, Manchester Tech Trust Angels and VentureFounders invest £725,000 to support the fast-growing recruitment agency marketplace.
Hiring Hub, the recruitment agency marketplace that helps employers find and work with specialist recruitment agencies to fill jobs faster at a fixed cost, has raised a follow-on investment to develop its award-winning platform, continue scaling its team, and fuel sales and marketing activity.
Ranked among the UK’s top 10 recruitment companies by independent review site Trustpilot, Hiring Hub is used by over 500 employers, who it helps find quality candidates quickly through its network of specialist recruitment agencies. It’s free for employers to post briefs on the marketplace, while recruitment agencies pay a monthly membership fee to access the platform and increase their fee income.
Hiring Hub grew active employers’ users 102% and active jobs 83% last year following a £1.35m cash injection in 2017 from Maven Capital Partners, using its Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF), and existing investor VentureFounders.
The latest round of funding will support Hiring Hub’s drive to democratise the UK’s recruitment agency market; giving employers an alternative to the big recruitment agency brands by making it easier for them to work with smaller, specialist recruiters, whom Hiring Hub believe respond faster and deliver a better quality of service over the big firms.
Simon Swan, CEO of Hiring Hub, said: “The business has made real progress over the last 18 months. It’s fantastic to have investors onboard that back our vision of supporting the UK’s 16,000+ independent recruitment agencies, while using technology to provide transparency, choice and speed – in doing so enhancing the customer experience – in what is a £35 billion domestic market.”
The shape of the UK’s recruitment agency market has altered dramatically during the last decade, with a four-fold increase in the number of recruitment agencies with fewer than ten employees to 16,000. Hiring Hub’s goal is to bring these small businesses together on one marketplace platform, using data and customer reviews to help employers find the right agency in the right moment.
Gavin Bell, Investment Manager at Maven Capital Partners, said: “Hiring Hub has made significant progress since our initial investment in 2017, as its team and proprietary platform continues to mature. We believe that the business is well-positioned within a market that is both fragmenting and growing quickly, and where technology can be applied to deliver myriad efficiencies and improve the customer experience.”
The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
