6th March 2007
CAT63/1
CATAPULT INVESTS IN FAST GROWING ACTIV8 –
TRENDSETTERS IN HR RESOURCING
Nottingham-basedActiv8 Human Resources Limited, developers of predictive HR software for volume recruitment, has secured £250k backing from the East Midlands Regional Venture Capital Fund, together with the commitment of up to a further £250k from the Fund subject to targets being met.
An additional £250k is being made available from SFLG (RBS), with £100k being injected by the company’s non-executive financial director Richard George and Sales Director Karl Heard-White, who recently joined the company. The cash injection is being used to enable the company to continue its rapid growth and fund the resulting predicted increase in monthly salary costs as the workforce grows.
Catapult Venture Managers, administers of the East Midlands Regional Venture Capital Fund (EMRVC), have also introduced Richard George as a key non-executive appointment.
The current value of the UK permanent recruitment agency market is estimated at £3.5bn, with the contract and temp market another £1.5bn. Activ8 has developed a number of products and services for the HR arena including Artificial Intelligence Recruitment (AIR), which predicts candidates suitability for a role based on data input.
AIR is being used successfully by Legal & General, who report an 80% improvement in the rate of hiring people who become top performers, as well as reducing hire time by 30%. These improvements are said to be providing an estimated annual saving to the company of £3.25m.
The company was founded two years ago by Laurence Collins, who led the UK HR consultancy division of Ceridian – a leading player in the HR global outsourcing sector; and IT expert Mathew Lymbery, a lead programmer with an HR systems organisation acquired by Ceridian. Both men recognising that clients were demanding more value for money from their HR function decided to set up their own company to meet that need.
Graham Mold, director of Catapult Venture Managers, said:”Activ8 is an incredibly exciting business run by an excellent management team, with a wealth of experience in the HR market. We first came across the business when they presented at the Connect Midlands £1 million Investment Challenge.
“At that time the company had been trading for just 18 months, yet had no debts and sales in excess of £750k. There is no doubt that artificial intelligence technologies are becoming more mainstream in areas such as marketing and in corporate treasury; and Activ8 believe that they are the first business to use predictive technologies for the screening, selection and ongoing performance management of people,” he concluded.
- ends -
< Back
