AI-powered talent firm Sense raises $50 mn from SoftBank Vision Fund 2

With this new round, firm will continue to ramp up its go-to-market strategy and raise awareness with firms that hire at scale across industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and retail

Sense, a market leader in AI-driven talent engagement and communication platform solutions for recruiting, on Monday said that it has raised $50 million in Series D funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. To date, Sense has secured a total of $90 million in funding.

With this new funding, Sense will continue to ramp up its go-to-market strategy and increase awareness with companies that hire at scale across rapidly growing industries including healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and retail. In addition, Sense will begin investing in international expansion especially focused in high-growth regions like Western Europe.

Amid today's hyper-competitive hiring market where blue and grey-collar workers are leaving jobs in record numbers; companies cannot accomplish their hiring goals without targeted investment in automation and AI to speed the recruiting process while infusing personalization into it. This tailwind has helped Sense gain traction across more than 600 customers.

“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 Anil Dharni, CEO of Sense. “Our latest funding is not only validation of the need for personalized talent engagement in today’s candidate-centric world but is also an accelerant for our platform globally as we help reshape the future of work.”

This Series D funding round comes off the heels of Sense’s recent Series C announcement - highlighting the company’s momentum, increased investor interest and strong pipeline of product innovation.

As a leader in talent engagement, Sense achieved a record year of business growth, more than doubling company revenue; doubling employee headcount; boosting enterprise deal size by 70 per cent; and achieving a net retention rate exceeding 130 per cent.  

"We have tracked Sense's growth and product innovation amid one of the most transformative years in the talent landscape,” said Munish Varma, managing partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “Powered by AI, the Sense platform aims to help companies manage the entire talent lifecycle which is of utmost importance in today’s competitive environment.”

Sense delivers a singular engagement platform powered by AI and machine learning that enables personalized communication across the entire talent lifecycle at scale. Through this personalized approach, Sense customers experience on average: a 263 per cent increase in candidates screened compared to a manual approach, reduced time to fill by 30-81 per cent, and up to 800 hours of recruiter time saved.

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