SmartRecruiters has raised $105M in total. We talk with Jerome Ternynck, its CEO and founder.
PetaCrunch: How would you describe SmartRecruiters in a single tweet?
Jerome Ternynck: SmartRecruiters is a global recruiting platform that connects candidates to jobs at a global scale. It’s the trusted choice of 4000+ global companies such as as McDonald’s, VISA, Linkedin, and Bosch to deliver Hiring Success (the ability to hire amazing talent on demand).
PC: How did it all start and why?
JT: I have been obsessed with recruiting for over 25 years now. I created the first version of an ATS, Mr Ted, to digitize the recruiting cabinat and later sold it to Lumesse. But there was still a major disconnect between the recruiters and the candidates. I started SmartRecruiters in 2010 with one goal. To fix that recruiting diconnect. And the answer was simple. One simple platform, designed around the user, that would address the needs of candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers. For businesses, it would mean getting great hires, on time, on budget. For candidates, it would make finding their dream job simple and straightforward. No anxiety, no fuss. That’s how SmartRecruiters was born as the Hiring Success company.
PC: What have you achieved so far?
JT: This is a tough one to describe in one tweet, but we have been growing 100% YoY in our enterprise business with many large housegold brands among others as customers (think Ikea, MCD, Alska Airlines, Equinox, VISA etc.) We are fast approaching a team of 300 exceptionally talented people spread across America, Europe and Asia. On the product front we have rounded out our suite for everything you need to attract select and hire great talent, from an ATS to a CRM to embedded AI. We also have a 600+ pre-integrated partners in our marketplace to deliver a true platform experience. And all of this with high customer satisfaction (+29 NPS, a 9.4 CSAT, and a 94% retention rate, stats that are unheard of in recruiting).
PC: How will you use your recent funding round?
JT: We will expand our global footprint by delivering hiring success with a world class sales and client success team. We will strengthen our product by investing heavily in AI, CRM, and the candidate experience. We will also expand our marketplace to ensure that any recruiting technology is natively integrated in our product and can be delivered anywhere in the world in any language.
PC: What do you plan to achieve in the next 2-3 years?
JT: We expect to be the no. 1 destination businesses contact to achieve hiring success and hire the best talent on demand. We expect to be the leaders in market share, client satisfaction, and retention. #1 choice for a recruiting platform for any global enterprise.
