HR tech startup Sense raises $50 million led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Sense, an AI-driven talent engagement and communication platform, has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, the San Francisco headquartered startup said on December 6.

This financing comes a few months after $16 million Series C round in June 2021. Sense has, so far, raised $90 million from investors such as Accel, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Avataar Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and Signia Venture Partners.

“Sense’s founding mission to equip companies to engage with best-fit talent both quickly and effectively is more important than ever. Our work with hundreds of companies in the past year alone has enabled them to build great teams and compete for talent amid the pandemic,” said Sense CEO Anil Dharni.

Sense plans to use the funds for international expansion, with the focus on high-growth markets such as Western Europe, it said. The startup has around 185 employees across its San Francisco headquarters and its Bengaluru office.

The proceeds will also be used to ramp up go-to-market strategy and increase awareness with companies that hire at scale across industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and retail.

Founded in 2015 by Dharni, Ram Gudavalli, Pankaj Jindal, and Alex Rosen, Sense enables talent acquisition teams to accelerate their hiring while enabling them to personalise interactions at every stage of the employment cycle.

The firm offers a clutch of candidate matching and screening services that leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning to help recruiters hire faster, it said.

The startup claims to have more than 600 customers, including Amazon, Sears, Adecco, Vaco and Kelly.

The company claims its customers witnessed a 263 percent increase in the number of candidates screened as compared to a manual approach and reduced the time to fill a position by 30-81 percent.

“We believe the critical nature of the Sense platform in enabling enterprise customers to find and hire quality talent faster has been clear. As it expands both nationally and globally, we have no doubt in their ability to positively transform how companies build great teams and compete" said Sumer Juneja, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers.