#Canada #Montreal #HiringBranch #Soft Skills AI #Crédit Mutuel

HiringBranch Secures CAD 5 Million in Series A Funding

HiringBranch, a trailblazer in soft skills assessment powered by AI, has recently announced raising CAD 5 million in its Series A funding round. This significant investment comes from notable backers, including Crédit Mutuel Equity, Export Development Canada, and Anges Québec, all aimed at propelling HiringBranch's innovative platform that promises to revolutionize the hiring process.

Founded in Canada, HiringBranch's platform offers a revolutionary AI-powered assessment that measures a candidate's soft skills—elements often deemed intangible in traditional hiring practices. With an impressive customer growth rate of 330% over the last two years, the firm is rapidly scaling its solution to North and Latin America, Asia, and the UK.

Co-Founder and CEO, Stephane Rivard, articulated the company's mission: "We want to unlock the power of soft skills in the workforce by measuring what used to be immeasurable." The proprietary Soft Skill AI™ technology aims to provide unparalleled accuracy, allowing organizations to leverage skill data for better hiring and talent mobility.

The platform transforms the recruitment process by offering tailored conversational assessments, enabling candidates to demonstrate their suitability for roles through real-life situational tasks. This unique approach not only helps candidates preview jobs before actual employment but also generates measurable data on their soft skills performance, benefitting recruiters.

The company recently revealed an internal study indicating its platform achieves an astounding 98% accuracy in assessing soft skills, a stark contrast to the 64% accuracy rate of the best publicly available large language models (LLMs). This advancement could redefine how companies approach recruitment in high-volume hiring contexts, significantly reducing time and costs while increasing the quality of new hires.

Nina Ni, an associate at Crédit Mutuel Equity, highlights the platform's ability to mitigate bias and streamline the hiring process. By automating the soft skills evaluation, HiringBranch's system minimizes traditional interview requirements—often expensive and time-consuming. As noted by André Couillard, President at Procom, the acceleration of recruitment processes using HiringBranch is expected to lead to better candidate retention rates and job performance.

The potential impact of hiring based on skill metrics helps organizations to realize the true capabilities of their workforce, reshaping the hiring landscape to favor ethical and effective practices. The emphasis on employing technology responsibly aligns with the growing focus on diversity and inclusion within recruitment, promoting a fairer job market.

As HiringBranch prepares for its ambitious scaling, Rivard envisions a future where soft skills measurement becomes standard in hiring practices, positioning the firm as a catalyst for change in what he describes as the skills-first talent movement. By focusing on the genuine skills that individuals possess rather than their ability to choose answers in multiple-choice formats, HiringBranch hopes to continue innovating in the assessment market.

For more information about HiringBranch, interested parties can visit their website. Through its innovative approach, HiringBranch is set to change the narrative around soft skills evaluation and recruitment, providing organizations with the tools needed to make informed, equitable hiring decisions.