Spotted Zebra, an award-winning HR tech company, has raised €8.8 millioon in Series A funding led by the pan–European venture capital firm Nauta Capital with participation from Act VC, as well as existing investors Playfair Capital and Entrepreneur First. Back in April they also raised €1.6 million.
Spotted Zebra provides a workforce management platform that allows large enterprises to identify skills gaps within their workforces and fill these gaps through hiring, succession planning or reskilling existing employees.
“Our core belief is that employees are happier and more productive when their unique skills – their superpowers – are aligned with roles that use and develop these talents,” said Ian Monk, CEO and Co-Founder of Spotted Zebra. “Our platform is solving the skills crisis by aligning people with opportunities. We help our clients to quickly find the right candidates when looking externally, and by identifying those individuals most suitable for reskilling or succession when looking internally. And more than that, we’re ensuring that employees go home feeling motivated and energised because their superpowers are being put to good use.”
The skills crisis is one of the great challenges of our time, according to the World Economic Forum. The workplace is changing rapidly, with many skills and roles becoming obsolete while critical new ones are emerging at a rate too fast to fill. 77% of businesses report skills shortages and the WEF estimates that failing to address skills gaps could cost businesses in G20 countries alone $11.5 trillion in lost growth in the next decade.
But whilst businesses struggle to fill skills shortages, there are millions of talented individuals whose skills are being overlooked as they lack the credentials or experience traditionally used by recruiters to determine hiring success. Spotted Zebra’s platform enables businesses to reduce their reliance on traditional job requirements and instead match individuals with opportunities based on the best indicator of role success – skills.
Conor Mills, Principal at Act VC, commented: “Spotted Zebra allows large organisations to highlight and validate skill sets and proficiency levels of both their workforce and candidate pools in a way not previously possible. This innovation allows executives and HR teams to make critical talent decisions with speed and confidence across various talent related work streams, delivering exceptional value for their organisations.“
The funding will support Spotted Zebra’s plan of scaling its platform to different fields and markets, hiring new talent and expanding its product suite to hit its goal of aligning 10 million people with opportunities at the world’s leading employers by 2030.
“Spotted Zebra has spent the last three years proving that it has a compelling solution to one of the world’s biggest challenges,” added Carles Ferrer Roqueta, a London-based General Partner at Nauta Capital. “A skills-based approach not only ensures more positive hiring and reskilling outcomes, but it also improves fairness, diversity and social equity. Spotted Zebra is passionate about helping organisations make fairer and more effective decisions and enable them to solve their skills gaps and create a happier, more productive workforce.”
Founded in 2020, Spotted Zebra counts a number of FTSE100 companies amongst its growing list of clients, and has also already gained industry recognition, with its hiring solution winning the Gold Award in Candidate Assessment at the In-House Recruitment Awards 2022 for its work with AWE.
