A branch of Goldman Sachs is seen in New York. File picture: Reuters A branch of Goldman Sachs is seen in New York. File picture: Reuters
Berlin - Talentsoft has obtained a 25 million euro ($27.6 million) investment from Goldman Sachs Group as the French maker of human resources software expands in new markets and boosts hiring to grab orders away from rivals including Oracle and SAP.
The company, which employs about 300 people, will use the funding to recruit 120 workers in 2016 and expand in the US, the UK and Asia, Chief Executive Officer Jean-Stephane Arcis said on Monday. Talentsoft is seeking partners in some regions and Goldman Sachs can help with that, he said in a phone interview.
“The market is really asking for a European alternative” when it comes to cloud-based talent management software ever since the EU Court of Justice struck down Safe Harbour, a 15- year-old pact that allowed companies to transfer data from Europe to the US, Arcis said. If a company wants to keep data in Germany, “we can do it”, he said, because Talentsoft has data centres in most regions.
Boulogne-Billancourt, France-based Talentsoft makes software including Hello Talent that enables recruiters to find candidates from social media and work collaboratively on hiring and talent management. Set up in 2007, Talentsoft has about 800 clients and has targeted $100 million in revenue for 2018, up from 22 million euros last year.
Talentsoft “has been consistently outgrowing the market over the past years”, and its business model is “very scalable”, David Reis, executive director at Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division in Europe, said by phone. Other investors in Talentsoft include Seventure Partners, Bpifrance, Alto Invest and Highland Capital Partners Europe.
“We want to be a global alternative from Europe,” Arcis said. “We also want to be the most innovative in terms of the social revolution that impacts the world of human resources.”
BLOOMBERG