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Image credit: Recruitee

Amsterdam-based Recruitee is an integrated cloud-based recruitment management and applicant tracking system (ATS) designed to assist internal HR teams of all sizes in organising and scaling their hiring process. In a recent development, the company is combining with Helsinki-based provider of core HR software in the Nordics to “create a premium digital HR solutions offering.”

The new group

According to the press release, the collaboration brings both companies’ software solutions under one umbrella. The combined group will have over 4,000 customers across Europe and the USA, and a team of over 250 employees. 

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Notably, PSG, a leading growth equity firm partnering with B2B software companies, will back the business as the majority shareholder, following its investment in Sympa in July 2020. Moreover, Alfvén & Didrikson – an active, long-term backer of Nordic businesses – will retain its minority stake after first investing in Sympa in 2016. 

After the collaboration between the two companies, PSG will be the majority shareholder of the new group. Both the co-founders of Recruitee – Perry Oostdam and Paweł Smoczyk – will join the board of the combined group. 

Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Helsinki, Sympa claims to offer customisable core HR solution and is one of the fastest-growing HR vendors in the Nordics. It currently works with more than 700 organisations, including renowned brands in the Nordics, such as Oatly, BMW, Dustin, and Byggmax. It also claims to have one of the highest customer satisfaction rates in HR technology in Europe.

A unicorn in the making 

In an exclusive conversation with Silicon Canals, Perry Oostdam, CEO and co-founder of Recruitee, explains the details of this collaboration. He clarifies that this is neither a merger nor an acquisition. “We are not merging both companies. Instead, we are combining two companies into a new group. The companies will continue to operate independently,” says Oostdam. 

According to Oostdam, they want to keep both the companies separate, because they actually serve different regions and different customers. 

“We are, of course, seeing a lot of sales synergies (eg customer need of recruitment+HR software). Our vision is that this group will contain more HR companies in the future, complementary HR tech services. We’ll be doing M&A ourselves to enlarge this group,” he further explains. 

Although he declined to share the financial details of this deal, Oostdam did mention that their ambition is to create >€1B in value within the timeframe of 5-6 years. “Sound cheesy maybe, but a Unicorn in the making indeed.”

The combined group aims to achieve unicorn status in the next 5-6 years, and become one of the biggest global HR tech companies. 

About Recruitee

Headquartered in Amsterdam, Recruitee is a cloud-based ATS solutions provider. The company’s digital software solutions cover job board integrations, talent sourcing, applicant tracking, pipeline automation, scheduling automation and advanced hiring analytics. Since inception in 2015, Recruitee has grown to service more than 3,200 customers from over 75 countries, a majority of which are from the company’s core markets of Benelux, DACH, the UK and the US.

According to Oostdam, he will continue to be the CEO of Recruitee, and the company will continue to be based in Amsterdam. “First and foremost, not a lot should change because we have a great momentum. We are set out for like 60 per cent growth this year, and we’re still on track for tremendous growth.”

Oostdam says that he doesn’t want to jeopardise this growth and wants to take it slow, explore synergies start to work together with Sympa, which is also on a growth path. 

Recruitee is also looking to expand its team. Oostdam claims that the company has hired eight people in February alone and is looking to hire nearly 60 people this year in Amsterdam. The company’s focus will be Europe-first, but also look oversees over time. Both companies have a mid-market focus.