TalentGuard, an award-winning leader in career pathing and talent management software and solutions, announced today it has raised $4M in a Series B round of financing led by LiveOak Venture Partners of Austin, Texas. The capital in this round will be used for funding strategic growth initiatives, including global sales and marketing expansion, and the acceleration of product innovation. TalentGuard will leverage artificial intelligence to help companies attract and engage employees in personalized career experiences.

Founded in 2010 by Linda Ginac, a leader in the field of career development for over 20 years, TalentGuard has grown to 80+ customers, including Fortune 500 companies. With the skills economy becoming more competitive in recent years, organizations face a talent crisis to reskill their employees, shifting their focus to career development and internal mobility, and away from traditional HR practices. TalentGuard's unified talent management suite addresses this key issue by aligning employees' career aspirations with business-critical challenges to close skill gaps and retain talent.

"We are excited to have LiveOak Venture Partners as our lead investor. They've provided us with expert advice and guidance over the past few years, so it was a natural next step to partner with them as investors," said Linda Ginac, CEO and Founder of TalentGuard. "They have a strong track record as enterprise software and technology investors, experience with global SaaS businesses, and closely align with our values. This partnership with LiveOak will help us to enhance our talent management platform, accelerate growth in international markets and expand our team."

"We've tracked TalentGuard over the years and have been blown away by their incredible grit and tenacity to create a comprehensive talent management platform and by their success with numerous blue chip F500 companies," stated Krishna Srinivasan, founding Partner at LiveOak. "We are excited to help catalyze the creation of the next category leader in this space."

As part of this round, TalentGuard adds key executives to its Board of Directors, including former Spredfast CEO, Rod Favaron, Horizon Bank Chairman and former CFO of Dell, James M. Schneider, and Founding Partner of LiveOak Venture Partners, Krishna Srinivasan.

"I am excited to work with Linda and her team. I've known her for many years since our time at pcOrder together and greatly admire her passion and dedication to make an impact in this space. TalentGuard's solution provides the critical capabilities all companies need to manage a modern workforce," said board member and former Spredfast CEO, Rod Favaron.

About TalentGuard

TalentGuard, the Predictive People Development company, is a global provider of career pathing and talent management software. Our cloud-based software uses machine learning to help employees take control of their own career growth, while giving their managers deep insights into their teams' greatest strengths and areas of growth. It shows employees where they are within their organizations and recommends career paths. We show employees what skills they already have, what skills they need, and what level they should be at for their current or future role. TalentGuard is also seamlessly integrated with the broader HCM ecosystem.

About LiveOak Venture Partners

LiveOak Venture Partners is a venture capital fund based in Austin, Texas, founded by Ben Scott, Krishna Srinivasan and Venu Shamapant. With 20 years of successful venture investing in Texas, the founders of LiveOak have helped create nearly $2 billion of enterprise value. While almost all of LiveOak's investments begin in the early stages, LiveOak is a full life cycle investor focused on technology and technology-enabled service companies based in Texas. LiveOak Venture Partners is a lead investor in exciting high-growth Texas-based companies such as CS Disco, Digital Pharmacist, OJO Labs and Opcity.