Tribehired Closes S$696K Seed Investment Led by TNF Ventures

SINGAPORE ‘ 25 March 2013 ‘ Tribehired.com, a social recruitment website, today announced that it had closed around S$696K (US$560K) seed funding round led by TNF Ventures (TNF) through the Technology Incubation Scheme under the Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF) within the Prime Minister’s Office. The round was supported by Singapore angel investors Ben Ball and Ben Chew.

The investment will be used to grow Tribehired’s team to expand both the number of job candidates on the system and the range of businesses using the service.

Devan Singaram, Founder of Tribehired, said: Today’s investment is crucial to the next stage of Tribehired’s development and not just because it brings us cash to fund our growth. In TNF we have access to a team of veteran entrepreneurs who have proved they know how to manage fast growth. Meanwhile Ben Chew brings specialist domain insight around recruitment. It’s great to have that kind of support behind us as we scale up rapidly.

Tribehired has the potential to grow fast because it incentivises ordinary people to recommend job opportunities at companies where their friends would fit. A window into social networks gives employers a better choice of talent, simultaneously reducing hiring costs and time-to-hire. Tribehired’s automatic recommendations are supplemented by individual candidate interviews to assure a match.

Tribehired is currently in intensive beta testing with several thousand users in Malaysia providing feedback around real job opportunities. Early adopters are typically Generation Y’ graduates but they are spread across a range of different industries and job functions. The notion of social network friends recommending each other for jobs is still new and testing has already revealed fascinating insights into customer needs and behaviours. A full international launch will follow shortly as the team reflects its learning in the service online.

Shirley Wong, Managing Partner at TNF Ventures, said: Recruitment is an evergreen industry but it is also ripe for disruption. We saw that Tribehired’s team has the passion and drive to bring about that disruption. There are others in this space but Tribehired’s team convinced us that they really understand the psychology of social networks and job seekers better than anyone else.

Clients using Tribehired already include Zalora, Lazada, Flocations and Brandtology. The service currently covers Singapore and Malaysia and focuses on innovative businesses that offer job seekers opportunities in businesses with a flat hierarchy and positive social impact.

Previous to today’s announcement, Tribehired received pre-seed funding from Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd, a government agency under the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia. Tribehired was also a participant in the JFDI-Innov8 2012 accelerator program operated by JFDI.Asia.

Hugh Mason, Co-founder and CEO at JFDI.Asia, said: This is a great deal for those directly involved but it also shows the benefits when Malaysia and Singapore collaborate to support innovative start-ups. Tribehired’s talent was first spotted by a Malaysian government fund and, with support from both private and public investors in Singapore, the business has been able to exploit opportunities in both markets to grow much faster than it would have done in either alone. Now, Tribehired is helping to fill jobs and create wealth on both ends of the causeway.

Information For Editors

TribeHired – http://tribehired.com

TribeHired is a social recruitment website dedicated to creating a new experience in job seeking by enabling users to tap into various networks. Using community-driven referrals and engagement, candidates are introduced to companies that have been selected and recommended by key individuals within their respective industries. This engagement between users, employers, and industry leaders helps to facilitate a unique approach that changes the concept of employment from cold contacts’ to warm connections’.

TNF Ventures – http://tnfventures.com

TNF Ventures (TNFV), an incubator under National Research Foundation’s Technology Incubator Scheme. TNF Ventures, founded by key shareholders with backgrounds of entrepreneurs, senior corporate executives and venture capitalists are some of the IT luminaries in Singapore. With the belief that their combined knowledge, experience and contacts could make a huge difference to a burgeoning startup ecosystem, TNFV looks to contribute back to Singapore by incubating the next generation of entrepreneurs.

National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore – http://www/nrf.gov.sg

The National Research Foundation (NRF), set up on 1 January 2006, is a department within the Prime Minister’s Office. The NRF helps set the national direction for research and development (R&D) by developing policies, plans and strategies for research, innovation and enterprise. It also funds strategic initiatives and builds up R&D capabilities and capacities by nurturing local and attracting foreign talent. The NRF aims to transform Singapore into a vibrant R&D hub that contributes towards a knowledge-intensive, innovative and entrepreneurial economy; and establish Singapore as a magnet for talent and excellence in science and innovation. The Technology Incubation Scheme or TIS comes under the umbrella of the National Framework for Innovation & Enterprise (NFIE), which was introduced in 2008 to advance R&D-based innovation in Singapore with a view to commercialization. Under the TIS, the NRF co-invests with the chosen technology incubators in Singapore-based high-tech start-ups.

Cradle – http://www.cradle.com.my/

Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd (Cradle), an agency under the Ministry of Finance, Malaysia is the organisation that manages the Cradle Investment Programme. The Ministry of Finance had allocated RM100 million to Cradle for this programme since it began in 2003. An additional RM50 million was recently added to the allocation for the 2011-2012 period, under the 10th Malaysia Plan.

Cradle now runs two programmes, the Cradle Investment Programme for funding development and commercialisation of technological ideas and companies, and the Coach and Grow Programme, a market driven programme to train entrepreneurs.

JFDI.Asia – http://jfdi.asia

JFDI.Asia Pte Ltd (JFDI.Asia) is building an innovation academy that accelerates, finances and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. Backed by a group of 25 local business angels, JFDI.Asia had early support from SingTel Innov8, mobile company RIM and SPRING Singapore.

JFDI.Asia’s accelerator bootcamp’ program takes teams of entrepreneurs from idea to investment in 100 days. Typically, more than 60% of teams succeed in securing S$500’700k funding per team at the end of the program. JFDI.Asia based in Singapore but operates with partners across the Asia Pacific region, focusing on mobile digital innovations that are rooted in Asia, for Asia. The current accelerator program ends with a demo day for accredited investors on 3 June. The next program is scheduled to begin in August 2013 and every six months thereafter.