It may seem a bit counterintuitive that Humanly is thriving as many companies pull back on hiring plans amid broader macroeconomic concerns.
But the Seattle-based recruiting software startup is coming off its best two quarters since launching in 2018. Annual revenue is up 3X year-over-year. And it just raised $7 million to capitalize on recent momentum.
Humanly uses a variety of automation software to help companies screen job candidates, schedule interviews, automate initial communication, run reference checks, and more. It competes against a wide swath of recruiting startups and larger platforms.
Humanly CEO Prem Kumar pointed to several trends helping fuel growth.
- While hiring may slow, companies are still looking to fill roles — often with smaller recruiting teams. So they look to tools like Humanly for help. Kumar said he noticed this during the pandemic as well.
- As more candidates apply for fewer roles, companies get more applicant volume. Humanly can help “engage with that demand at scale,” Kumar said.
- And as more candidates flow through Humanly’s platform, its data models improve — helping better match job seekers with open roles. “Then when the market rebounds we are also poised with strong candidates on the ready,” Kumar added.
Driven in part by its acquisition of Teamable last year, Humanly has invested more heavily in tools to help job candidates — expanding beyond just serving companies.
Kumar said “candidate resentment,” which refers to negative experiences for job applicants, is at an all-time high.
If Humanly can help candidates have a better experience on the job hunt (via mock interviews, career advice, etc.), it’s betting that this will help companies — reducing their “time to hire” and overall recruiting-related expenses.
Humanly screens 250,000 new candidates per month. The startup builds its candidate database from a variety of online sources, partnerships with applicant tracking firms, and from companies that opt-in.
Many of Humanly’s customers are large companies outside of the tech industry that hire in high volumes.
Kumar said the startup has plenty of runway and didn’t need to raise capital, describing the new funding as a “momentum round.” The company’s valuation has doubled since its last raise, Kumar said. Humanly raised $12 million in 2023. Total funding to date is $24 million.
Investors in the latest funding round include Drive Capital, Y Combinator, Zeal Capital Partners, Pack Ventures, Elliot Group, Tres Monos, Spark Growth Ventures, TMD Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and several angels.
Kumar is a former Microsoft and Tinypulse employee. He co-founded Humanly with Andrew Gardner and Bryan Leptich. The startup graduated from Y Combinator in 2019.
Kumar won Startup CEO of the Year honors at the 2023 GeekWire Awards.
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