Canada-Based HiringBranch Raises CAD 5M Series A to Disrupt Recruitment with Soft Skills AI
HiringBranch, an AI-driven platform specializing in soft skills assessment, has raised CAD 5 million in Series A funding led by Crédit Mutuel Equity, with contributions from Export Development Canada and Anges Québec. The funding will support the expansion of its Soft Skills AI™ technology across North and Latin America, Asia, and the UK. Known for its tailored conversational assessments, HiringBranch’s AI provides 98% accuracy in soft skill evaluations, outperforming traditional methods and reducing hiring bias. The platform revolutionizes high-volume hiring by cutting interview times by over 80% and significantly lowering mis-hire rates, fostering a fairer and more efficient recruitment process.
HiringBranch is accelerating AI innovation in the skills-based economy, giving candidates fairer access to opportunities with a new generation of assessments and fewer interviews.
MONTRÉAL, Dec. 10, 2024 — HiringBranch, a leading AI-powered soft skills assessment platform, announced today that it has raised CAD 5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Crédit Mutuel Equity, with participation from Export Development Canada and Anges Québec.
The funds will fuel market penetration of the company’s innovative Soft Skill AI™, using strategic integration partnerships and sales initiatives to North and Latin America, Asia and the UK. This new trajectory comes on the heels of 330% customer growth in the past two years.
HiringBranch is transforming the way enterprises and contact centers hire with its tailored conversational voice and chat assessment experience. This approach allows candidates to preview the job before getting the job while AI scores role-critical soft skills for the recruiter.
“We want to unlock the power of soft skills in the workforce by measuring what used to be immeasurable,” said HiringBranch Co-Founder and CEO Stephane Rivard. “Our native AI technology provides unparalleled accuracy in soft skills evaluation, enabling organizations to leverage skills data for hiring, talent mobility and strategic decision-making. This isn’t a multiple-choice or personality test—it’s a precise measure of a candidate’s real abilities to do a job well, creating a fairer path to opportunity.”
The company recently announced a study demonstrating its proprietary dataset measures soft skills at 98% accuracy while the next best public LLM’s accuracy sits at 64%.
André Couillard, President at Procom and angel investor says, “For companies that hire in high volume, HiringBranch revolutionizes the recruitment process by replacing the interview stage. Companies see themselves speeding up the process, dramatically reducing costs and selecting candidates who perform better and stay on the job longer.”
By automating soft skills measurement, HiringBranch’s platform reduces the need for traditional interviews in high-volume hiring, which are often time-consuming and can introduce bias. Compared to human-based assessments, HiringBranch’s AI has shown greater fairness and has proven to select candidates who perform better on the job compared to those hired with traditional methods.
“We have seen firsthand HiringBranch using AI for good, eliminating bias, and alleviating hiring managers of manual processes, like interviews, to work on higher value tasks. This is the true value of AI when executed responsibly,” says Nina Ni, Associate at Crédit Mutuel Equity. “Our goal is to help HiringBranch continue improving the assessment market, enabling enterprises to make better hiring decisions in the process,” says Ludovic André, Managing Director at Crédit Mutuel Equity Canada.
“We are uniquely positioned to be a catalyst in the skills-first talent movement with our award-winning Soft Skills AI™. The future of hiring starts with skills measurement, and we plan to be at the forefront of this paradigm shift as we scale,” said Rivard.
About HiringBranch
Hiring assessments aren’t new. AI skills assessments are. HiringBranch uses native AI to measure soft skills from conversations. This unique open-ended approach is the next generation to legacy multiple-choice assessments – because human skills cannot be measured by A, B or C. Fortune 1000s and contact centers use HiringBranch to reduce interview time by over 80% while achieving mis-hire rates as low as 1%. Founded by Patricia Macleod and Stephane Rivard and headquartered in Canada, HiringBranch proudly serves high-volume hiring companies like Bell Canada.
HiringBranch is committed to operating fairly while fostering diversity and inclusion for all its customers globally through unwavering and unbiased technology.
Learn more at hiringbranch.com
About Crédit Mutuel Equity
Crédit Mutuel Equity is the Private Equity arm of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and carries out venture capital, growth capital and buyout activities.
Crédit Mutuel Equity supports business leaders at all stages of their companies’ development, from seed phase to buyout, by providing them with the means and the time required to implement their transformation plan. Crédit Mutuel Equity brings together a network of over 350 business leaders and entrepreneurs who share similar beliefs and can benefit from one another’s experience, no matter the nature of their challenges. From its own funds (€4 billion), Crédit Mutuel Equity finances investments tailored to the time horizons and growth strategies of the companies, whether in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, or Canada.
