The funding came from 12 investors, most of whom either sit on the company's management team or run their own startups and serve as advisors. The investors are either based in South Carolina or the West Coast, Job Market Maker CEO Joseph Hanna said.

The tech firm raised $500,000 during its first capital raise. Hanna said he expects more investments to improve the company's products and increase its customer base. The company had 30 corporate customers and 5,000 candidates use its software as of June.

This funding will be used to continue work on candidate assessments and for a new product launch for the health care services sector, which Hanna expects to be made public soon.

Hanna wants to close the gap between people who apply for hundreds of open positions, which they may or may not be qualified for, and the companies that struggle to find qualified candidates for openings.

Job Market Maker's software works to match a candidate's skills with an open position's prerequisites. A job seeker can create a profile based on their experience and education and the software will populate positions that match the applicant's talents.

'The job market continues to be one of the most inefficient markets we have. It is mind-boggling to me that we have smartphones and you can tell where anyone is on planet Earth and we still can't match people with the right jobs,' Hanna said. 'I believe technology is going to change that.'

Job Market Maker focuses on companies with 100 to 500 employees in the health care, manufacturing, financial services and technology sectors. Bishop Gadsden, Detyens Shipyards Inc. and Bartercard are some of its customers.

Both applicant and employer can choose whether to move forward in real time. If the applicant is missing a skill, Job Market Maker will refer them to a local institution to get a forklift operator license or to take a coding class, for example.

Job Market Maker shares office space in SIB Development and Consulting's building in the Half Mile North development along upper Meeting Street.

'We started a year and a half ago. It's amazing to think we had two full-timers and one part-time person working at a dining room table,' Hanna said. 'Now we have 12 full-time and six part-time employees and sales people all over the country.'