Singapore’s 4-month-old diversity hiring startup bags $200k in pre-seed round

Diversely.io, a Singapore-based AI-driven hiring platform, announced that it has raised US$200,000 in a pre-seed round four months after its official incorporation.

(From left) Diversely co-founders Hayley Bakker and Helen McGuire / Photo credit: Diversely

The investment round was from individuals including ex-Robert Walters executive Rob Bryson, Standard Chartered Bank executive Jeroen Steenbergen, former ABN AMRO Bank executive Sergio Panday, and DMCG Global co-founder Justin McGuire.

Helen McGuire and Hayley Bakker founded Diversely with the aim to remove bias from the hiring process. McGuire and Bakker have over 25 years of combined experience in diversity and inclusion, tech, HR, and communications fields.

According to a report, the diversity and inclusion technology in talent management has seen a 100% year-on-year revenue growth. However, Diversely said its research among its clients shows that although 85% of them want to improve workplace diversity and 65% are spending time and money on doing so, just a fifth are seeing any kind of tangible results.

The company aims to address the issue with its end-to-end HR platform. It helps businesses automate, manage, track, and improve their workplace diversity through hiring tools, analytics, and training.

The new funds will go toward developing its product, as well as hiring for its tech team in Vietnam, said Bakker, who is also the company’s chief product officer.

“Our first priority is the build of our ‘Job Description Analyser,’ which uses scientific research from our partners at The University of Nottingham to recognize, reduce, and replace biased language in job descriptions in order to reach broader demographics and attract underrepresented groups,” she added.

Currently in the beta stage, the startup will officially launch its products in Q2 2021 and aims to expand globally by 2023.