Why we invested in Globus.ai
Globus.ai, whose human-centric AI enables agencies and recruiters to match more candidates — faster & better, recently announced a 4.8 MUSD seed funding round co-led by Alliance Venture and Scale Capital. See press coverage from Tech Funding News and Finansavisen (🇳🇴,$). We are excited to back the vision and join the mission to “Give more people the opportunity to make a difference”.
Investment thesis: Serving talent & providing opportunity
The global labor market is undergoing massive changes. Remote work, deglobalization, the gig economy and the great resignation are among the current “buzz themes”. Qualified talent is a scarce resource and access to talent is more critical than ever. Meanwhile, talent is looking for the right opportunities in the right work environment, preferably on the right terms with the right level of flexibility. In 2019 we invested in Superside with a view to provide opportunity for global design talent to serve and impact enterprises on a win-win basis, which has proved to be a great success. See the original blog post on our thesis. Ever since we’ve been consistently looking to find and invest in the best startups addressing the talent & opportunity equation utilizing tech. In 2020 we invested in Alexis HR, helping fast-growing companies to simplify and automate people operations. In 2021 we invested in Equality Check, empowering workplaces to identify and measure equality gaps, and presenting evidence-based solutions to close the gaps to create an inclusive work environment. Even our recent investment in Helppy can also be viewed thru the lens of this theme. Helppy is on a mission to change elderly care, which to a large extent is about orchestrating care utilizing tech in a way that creates a win-win-win for the elderly, families and helpers. Our new investment in Globus fits nicely into this worldview and is aligned with our investment thesis of serving talent & providing opportunity.
Empowering agents & recruiters by matching talent
Globus’ offering is a unique and intelligent software that enables agencies and recruiters to find and place people with relevant skills, competencies and preferences, perfectly matching the needs for staffing and talent in settings with dynamic demand, typically in temporary staffing. From requests to search, matching and booking — the whole process takes seconds on a single pane of glass. Staffing agencies deploying Globus have seen radical improvements in performance yielding business value.
The traditional approach to staffing, workforce management and shift scheduling is a linear process with resource allocation on a timeline. This is where Globus takes a different approach as a true data platform integrating all elements of the staffing process for greater efficiency and effectiveness. The data platform approach also has clear benefits from the talent’s perspective:
- Better shift proposals, as that matching algorithm utilizes data on competence, experience, preferences and history
- More shift proposals for underutilized resources, as the full talent pool is activated and mobilized
Globus has strong product-market fit and traction, particularly with staffing agencies within healthcare and education, yet the potential goes beyond agencies. The product can also be used directly by organizations in all industries with temporary and dynamic staffing needs. The ambition is to play a leading role in the future of work, by applying AI to the search, matching and booking of talent in any modern organization with a «hybrid workforce». Globus is confident that the human-centric AI will ultimately understand people better and connect them with the right opportunities, fast. While the HR Tech landscape is crowded and heavily invested, Globus extends beyond existing product categories and could be a new category-defining company.
Execution & team
Globus was established by co-founders with strong data science backgrounds from Norwegian blue-chip companies and big ambitions for making a positive impact on the world. The early days of Globus included a search and pivot phase to find the right problem-opportunity space to double-down on. We at Alliance followed this journey from the sidelines. Since the first sign of product-market fit in staffing, we have been greatly impressed by the team’s execution. About a year ago Globus had a handful of early customers on the product in Sweden and Norway. Since then the company has grown to more than 30 customers and 4x the product revenue run-rate, while also landing multiple significant customers in the UK market. The total team is more than 50 people in 20 countries in a remote-first configuration with a strong and inclusive culture. We believe that Globus’ journey has just started, even if a solid foundation is in place. Based on the position, potential and execution, we are stoked to join the Globus mission and hope to play our part in making it a great success for all stakeholders, including customers and talent.
Alliance Venture Delta is proud to be backed by:
Supported by InnovFin Equity, with the financial backing of the European Union under Horizon 2020 Financial Instrument and the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) set up under the Investment Plan for Europe. The purpose of EFSI is to help support financing and implementing productive investments in the European Union and to ensure increased access to financing.
