Bellevue-based recruiting startup SeekOut has raised a $115 million Series C round, putting its value at over $1.2 billion.
The funding round, announced Wednesday, comes during a time of rapid growth for SeekOut. According to SeekOut co-founder and CEO Anoop Gupta, the company now has about 120 employees and plans to hit 250 to 300 in a year. The company had around 50 employees at the time of its $65 million Series B round in March.
"We will be investing a lot in data and infrastructure," Gupta said. "We're going to be expanding our external database and coupling it with the internal sources."
In November of 2020, SeekOut didn't renew its lease at the Bellevue Technology Center. Around late summer of 2021, however, Gupta said the company moved into a roughly 22,000-square-foot space near the intersection of 112th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 12th Street in Bellevue.
On its website, SeekOut has open roles in engineering, customer success, marketing and sales, among others.
SeekOut launched in 2017. The startup helps clients find job candidates by searching public profiles, the open web, published papers and conferences. SeekOut also offers filters to help clients find diverse talent. Its clients include Rover, Merck and Experian. According to the company, SeekOut now has more than 1,000 customers.
SeekOut is just the latest Seattle-area startup to hit a value of at least $1 billion, or "unicorn" status, in recent months. Bellingham-based real estate tech startup Place, for example, pushed its value over $1 billion in November when it raised $100 million, while Seattle-based interviewing startup Karat hit a value of $1.1 billion in October when it raised a $110 million Series C.
Seattle-area unicorns (June 2021)
Powerhouse investor Tiger Global Management led SeekOut's Series C. The New York City-based firm also led Karat's Series C and backs local unicorns like Outreach, Amperity and Highspot.
Gupta said the funds will also help SeekOut develop new partnerships, grow internationally and explore acquisitions. He added that the company wants to move further into talent development and retention, not just talent acquisition.
"We are pulling a lot of our expertise that we have on the external talent and combining it with the talent information sources that we get from inside the company to give companies a platform to amplify their people," Gupta said.
