Tech startup Qualifi Raises $4.5M with a mission to transform High-Volume Hiring
May 17, 2023 Qualifi, the enterprise solution for high-volume hiring, today announced it has received $4.5M in funding to accelerate the company into a new growth phase of development. The financing round was co-led by m]x[v Capital and Rally Ventures.
This milestone is monumental for Qualifi in the expansion of its hiring platform. In addition to lead investment by m]x[v Capital and Rally Ventures, this round had significant investment from Armory Square Ventures, Sixty8 Capital, Elevate Ventures, Techstars Fund, Converge Venture Partners, Debut Capital, and other notable angel investors. Neenah Jain, Partner and Chief Financial Officer from Armory Square Ventures, will be joining the Qualifi board, bringing over two decades of experience in finance, analysis, and accounting.
Darrian Mikell, Devyn Mikell, DeSean Prentice, and Keenan Jaenicke founded Qualifi in 2019. Since then, Darrian Mikell was named the 2022 Rising Entrepreneur of the Year by TechPoint. Qualifi has been named one of the 2022 and 2023 Best Places to Work in Indiana by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce as well as an Exceptional Employer at Techpoint’s 2023 MIRA Best of Tech Awards. The founders of Qualifi are alums of the Techstars Anywhere Class of ’21.
“We are thrilled to welcome such a diverse group of strategic investors who closely align with our next stage of growth,” said Qualifi’s CEO and Co-Founder, Darrian Mikell. “This round of funding allows us to further develop our technology to alleviate the pain points of hiring on recruiting teams globally. We are focused on taking burdens from talent leaders so they can take care of their people, a mission that this investor group fully supports. We are excited to share with the world a new stage of growth for Qualifi.”
Financial support from respected funders and community leaders speaks to the value of Qualifi as a platform and the industrious efforts of the Qualifi team. The burgeoning company plans to further develop the platform, make new industry partnerships, and address new pain points felt by recruiters every day.
“m]x[v is thrilled to be a part of Qualifi’s mission to transform how companies approach high-volume hiring,” says Mark Ghermezian, m]x[v Capital’s General Partner. “The Qualifi platform is streamlining the recruitment process, eliminating friction for both employers and job candidates. By introducing equity, speed, and a structured process into an otherwise chaotic and daunting task, Qualifi empowers companies to make data-driven hiring decisions that will lead to more diverse and qualified teams.”
Jeff Hick, General Partner at Rally Ventures, said, “We are immensely impressed by Qualifi’s frictionless solution that empowers recruiters to find the best candidates faster using automation and asynchronous phone interviews. Equally important, Qualifi provides equitable access and a memorable candidate experience for job seekers. We are proud to be part of this journey and the contribution this business is making to Talent Acquisition.”
“This round of funding will help fuel our next stage growth,” says Keenan Jaenicke, Qualifi’s VP of Product and Co-Founder. “Our platform solves a widespread problem that recruiters face. In this new stage of growth, we will continue to fine-tune and extend our product to help companies improve their time-to-hire.”
“At our firm we aim to identify mission-focused founding teams in geographies overlooked by other investors. Qualifi has innovated on a pressing, important problem and is helping recruiters navigate a competitive climate for candidates in a range of high growth industries. From our vantage point, we believe the company will continue to scale, sourcing talented pools of individuals presently underserved by current software and recruitment tools. Qualifi is also poised to become a beacon of new opportunity for the evolving tech ecosystem in Indiana and we look forward to aiding the company in attaining that goal,” said Neenah Jain, Partner and CFO at Armory Square Ventures.
“We at Sixty8 Capital continue to be impressed with the founding team at Qualifi and their ability to bring such a game changing platform to the market,” says Kelli Jones, General Partner at Sixty8 Capital. “Qualifi has solved a major roadblock for high volume hiring, one that is sure to help HR leaders run a more streamlined process and get the right candidates in the right seats.”
Qualifi customers eagerly attest to the value already built into the platform. Calista Rihm, Reid Health’s Human Resource Manager shared Qualifi cut down interview times by 20 minutes per candidate resulting in a 44% decrease in interview time. “Now, our application review process is more efficient, and we get a better perspective of the candidates.” Rihm said. Additionally, the team was able to expand their recruiting efforts without hiring an additional Recruiter. Similar to Reid Health, current customers have seen drastic improvements in their interview processes including re-engaging with 50% of lost candidates and cutting down applicant screening time by 83%.
About Qualifi
Qualifi is changing the way high-volume recruiters screen candidates by eliminating friction, mitigating bias, and dramatically reducing the time it takes to schedule and coordinate interviews. Using Qualifi, recruiters go from struggling to fill roles to becoming talent magnets and making offers to hire the best candidates before their competition.
