North East recruitment software specialists HRS Powered by RecruitmentForce are implementing ambitious development plans with the help of a £250,000 investment from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund.RecruitmentForce designs and implements software solutions for the recruitment industry, which helps companies source, engage and place more candidates.
Managing the entire recruitment life-cycle including social media outreach, recruitment marketing, big data reporting and candidate & job matching, HRS automates key tasks, thus increasing recruitment efficiency and accelerates business growth.
The Newcastle-headquartered firm’s products are provided on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) monthly rental model, and it is now actioning plans to increase the number of user licenses it has in place to around 7,000 within the next three years, as well as growing its revenues by ten per cent on a month-by-month basis.
To help provide the extra staff, training and product development capacity required to achieve these goals, the company’s management team has worked with regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers to secure the backing from the Growth Fund.
RecruitmentForce has also received investment from another regional fund manager, Northstar Ventures, since 2010 totalling over £900,000 between its two FBNE funds, the Proof of Concept and Accelerator funds.
Five new jobs have already been created, to take the company’s workforce up to 21, and the company expects to have 30 employees by the end of the year.
Most of RecruitmentForce’s clients are based in the UK, but it also operates overseas, with clients in North America, Australia and Asia-Pacific, and these regions are targeted for further growth.
As well as working with recruitment consultancies, it is also aiming to add larger businesses to its client portfolio who have their own internal recruitment teams.
Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that there were 503,000 jobs advertised between February and April this year, which is the highest quarterly figure since the end of 2008.
NEL were introduced to RecruitmentForce through the support of Joan Louw of Growth Accelerator headed up by Grant Thornton.
Chief executive and co-founder Eldon Jobe says: “Technology and social media have had a major impact on the recruitment sector, with consultancies having to manage a huge range of information with both speed and efficiency.
“The systems we develop give them the control and functionality they need to fulfil the service promises they make to their own customers, and we’re very confident that we can achieve even more with the extra resources we now have in place.
“We’re also increasingly finding that many larger firms are taking their recruitment function back in-house to manage it themselves, and our systems can be adapted to suit these companies’ requirements, which gives us great potential for an additional income stream.
“The NEL team were highly professional during the investment application process, and the capital they’ve invested in us will make a significant difference to the pace at which we’re able to grow.”
Jane Siddle, investment executive at NEL Fund Managers, adds: “Recruitment Force has established a strong position in a niche market and their plans for the coming years presented us with a very credible investment opportunity.”
Ian Richards, director at Northstar Ventures, says: “It is great to see Recruitment Force receiving further funding to assist it with its growth plans. It has established itself well to date, and this new funding round will enable it to take on a number of larger clients.”
Aimed at regional businesses which are at a development and growth stage, the Growth Fund forms part of the wider Finance for Business North East Fund.
Managed by North East Finance, it will see £142m of investment capital injected into the region by the European Investment Bank and the European Regional Development Fund 2007-13.
NEL is looking to make around 130 investments from the Growth Fund, and is actively looking to speak to ambitious north east companies with robust business plans.
For more information about NEL’s investment criteria, visit www.nel.co.uk or contact the investment team on 0845 111 1850.
The ERDF 2007-13 programme is bringing over £300m into North East England to support innovation, enterprise and business support. It will help create and safeguard 28,000 new jobs, start 3,000 new businesses and increase the region’s productivity by £1.1bn per annum.