Amsterdam-based HR tech startup TestGorilla announced on Tuesday that it has raised $70M (approximately €66.83M) in its Series A round of funding.
The round was co-led by the London-based venture capital firms Atomico and Balderton Capital. As part of the deal, Luca Eisenstecken from Atomico and James Wise from Balderton will join the board of TestGorilla.
The company has now raised a total of $80M in funding following previous investment from Notion, Partech, and CapitalT – who also participated in the current round.
Atomico’s partner Luca Eisenstecken says, “Finding the right people is increasingly challenging for even the world’s best brands, and the pandemic has opened employer eyes to huge untapped pools of global talent. TestGorilla is seeing incredible growth with its automated, data-driven approach to solving this problem. And they’re doing this while delivering a fairer hiring process based on skills rather than resumes, eliminating the biases that prejudice decision-making.”
“Replacing CVs with TestGorilla”
Launched in 2020 by serial entrepreneur Wouter Durville and former Bain & Company Partner Otto Verhage, TestGorilla is a pre-assessment platform that helps companies hire the right talent by assessing factors relating to job success for the candidate such as cognitive abilities, soft skills, specific job skills, culture fit, motivation, and language proficiency.
The company claims that by using TestGorilla, their customers save valuable time, make objective hiring decisions, and avoid expensive mis-hires.
Co-founder Wouter Durville says, “Too often, the recruitment process requires hiring managers to spend hours screening unreliable, incomplete, subjective CVs. By replacing resumes with more than 220 scientifically validated tests, our platform helps to eliminate hiring bias, creating a level playing field where every candidate can compete on equal terms.”
The company has attracted more than 5,300 customers in less than two years since its launch. Some of its customers include Sony, PepsiCo, Bain & Company, Revolut, Oracle, H&M and the UK’s National Health Service.
How does it work?
TestGorilla claims to be leading in skills-based recruiting, a method of hiring that allows each candidate an equal opportunity to prove their ability and motivation. Skills-based recruiting allows firms to hire top talent and a wider range of candidates quickly, easily, and with less bias.
According to the company, the TestGorilla platform addresses this by providing businesses with access to hundreds of pre-employment exams, allowing them to personalise their candidate search to their specific needs. The examinations cover a wide range of topics, from numeric skills to cognitive capacity, allowing candidates to compete on merit rather than experience.
When recruiters have dozens of CVs to examine, the ability to analyse candidates objectively by comparing their ranking results before determining which candidates to call for an interview helps remove unconscious bias. This leads to a more varied workforce, as seen by TestGorilla’s own staff, and studies indicate that diverse teams perform better.
Funds to expand its test library and hire 100 new talents
TestGorilla says that its platform’s further development will include connectivity with other Applicant Tracking Systems, allowing employers to utilise the product from inside their existing ATS, as well as the addition of new capabilities to meet the needs of mid-sized organisations.
The company says, “Our test library continues to expand, with the existing 220+ tests due to be joined by a further 100 by the end of 2022. We also expect to hire 100 new employees in the coming year.” Check out the company’s open roles here.
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