Madrid and London based Jobandtalent has just raised $14m in a Series A round (read here). Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Juan Urdiales answered our questions about the company, the funding and future plans.
FinSMEs: First, can you tell us a little bit more about you? What’s your background?
Juan: I started my first company, a textile business, when I was in my last year of university back in 2005. After selling the business I then founded jobandtalent in 2009 with Felipe Navio (co-Founder and -Co-CEO).
FinSMEs: Let’s speak about JobandTalent. What’s the opportunity you found in the market?
Juan: The jobs market has traditionally relied on professionals spending their time searching for roles, which is sometimes a long and difficult process. We wanted to change this completely, so jobandtalent has been created to deliver ideal vacancies direct to the candidate, based on their professional details. This both saves time and increases the chances of finding a great match, which is a far more effective experience for both parties.
FinSMEs: How does JobandTalent work? Tell me something about the features…
Juan: When a new user registers on the platform, they have to submit a number of different details which are then used to match a candidate with a job opening. Once our highly accurate technology matches a job listing with a candidate, a message is automatically sent to the job seeker to notify them about the vacancy. This takes the hard work out of hunting for a job for the candidate and helps companies find the perfect hire.
FinSMEs: Can you introduce me to the other team members?
Juan: My Co-Founder and Co-CEO is, Felipe Navio and he started the company with me back in 2009. In 2012,Sergio Espeja joined the company as CTO. Felix Ruiz, founder of Tuenti, a social network that was sold for $100M to telefonica, has recently joined our team to lead our growth. Carlos del Cacho, our Chief Data Scientist has joined us to lead the algorithm development.
FinSMEs: Where are you now in terms of growth? Some numbers?
Juan: We don’t currently break down our revenue numbers but what we can let you know, is that we process over 300,000 job applications per month from candidates. Jobandtalent also has a very active user base, which has seen over 1.75 million registered candidates so far and an average monthly growth of 200,000 users. We’ve also signed more than 200 European and global companies so far, including L’Oreal, Ericsson, Morgan Stanley and G4S, amongst many others.
FinSMEs: You just raised funding. What can you tell me about the investors? How are you using the funds?
Juan: Our funding, which was led by Qualitas Equity Partners, Kibo Ventures, FJME Ventures and business angels Pelayo Cortina Koplowitz and Luca de Tena, secures our company growth and we’ll use our most recent funding to boost our presence in our existing markets: UK, Spain and LATAM, with the aim of expanding into the U.S. early next year.
FinSMEs:…future plans?
Juan: Over the next few months, we will focus on consolidating our European awareness, while also boosting out LATAM presence. We are also looking to expand in the U.S. over the coming year.
FinSMEs
10/07/2014