TalentWise has spun off from Naveen Jain’s Inome in a $25 million financing round led by an undisclosed Seattle area private equity firm. The Bothell-based company, which employs more than 280 people, says the new money will be used to expand its service for screening, hiring and onboarding new employees at large organizations.
Jain, who founded Inome, previously known as Intelius and before that led InfoSpace, will remain a minority shareholder and board member in TalentWise. But the company will now operate as an independent entity, with a new board that consists of Jain; two TalentWise executives; a representative from the private investment firm; and an independent director. The new investor will not have a majority share of the company, which continues to grow fast with revenues growing 53 percent last year. The company declined to name the firm or the board member, noting that they are a “very large family office that values their privacy.”
Todd Owens, president and COO of TalentWise, said that the money will be used to expand its software-as-a-service platform and “capitalize on the gaping hole” in technologies to automate HR processes. According to Owens, there’s plenty of “inefficiency and disconnected systems” in the HR space, and TalentWise is attempting to be the one-stop shop for everything from background checks for candidates to tax credits and incentives for new hires.
With the new money and corporate structure, Owens said that they will be able to accelerate growth and “invest in a business that has great prospects.”
“It’s a tremendous story for the Northwest, and all very bright,” he said.
A representative from the mysterious investment first offered this remark in a press release, a bit unusual to have an anonymous person quoted:
“What impresses us most about TalentWise is their incredibly powerful software which, when coupled with their award-winning service, provides the HR industry with a solution it has been seeking for some time. This investment also accelerates TalentWise’s growth and creates new job opportunities in the Pacific Northwest during a period of high unemployment.”
We’ll keep digging around to see if we can identify the new investor, as this marks a pretty large bet. Last year, Jain formed Inome as an umbrella company for the brands previously housed under Intelius.
