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Work4 Labs Gets Working with $11M Series A

2012-09-13
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Leader in Facebook recruitment technology, disclosed that it received $11 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners and a group of select industry experts.
Work4 Labs, the world leader in Facebook recruitment technology, today announced its newly expanded suite of social recruiting products. During its initial phase of development, Work4 Labs has built an impressive customer roster of 17,000 customers, including Anheuser Busch, Ben and Jerry's, Kate Spade, VMWare, and UPS. Based on the success of its enterprise offering and the demand for Facebook recruiting tools from smaller companies, Work4 Labs is releasing a free version of its popular Work For Us product tailored specifically to small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs). In order to scale the business on all fronts, Work4 Labs also disclosed that it received $11 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners and a group of select industry experts.

Working for the Enterprise Work4 Labs uses Facebook and other social networks to help businesses hire for positions at every level, from hourly workers to mid-level executives. Its award-winning Work For Us product allows recruiters to easily create branded enterprise-grade corporate career sites on Facebook, driving traffic, job applications and employee referrals from the network's ~1 billion users. Work4 Labs' powerful Facebook ads integration also enables companies to target active and passive job seekers that meet their specific criteria, making it the ideal social recruiting solution for businesses of all types, looking to fill both blue collar and white collar positions.

As Facebook's top corporate recruiting solution, Work4 Labs enables tens of thousands of companies, including SAP, Gap, General Motors, and L'Oreal, to find qualified candidates worldwide. In its first 18 months of operation, Work4 Labs powered social recruitment programs for one out of every five of the Fortune 500 companies that recruit on Facebook.

"Hiring is an inherently social activity, and today the majority of people conduct their lives through social networks," said Stephane Le Viet, CEO of Work4 Labs. "Our goal is to help companies find and hire the most qualified candidates in the places where these candidates spend the most time, particularly on Facebook. Our technology makes it easy and cost-effective to take advantage of social media to find the right hires, regardless of the company's size or the candidate's experience level."

SMBs Gain Hiring Advantage Through Social Media

As enterprise social recruiting takes off, Work4 Labs recognizes that SMBs in particular need hiring help. SMBs often lack the resources to compete with the recruiting budgets of large companies, yet companies of all sizes have the ability to build an effective presence on Facebook. For this reason, Work4 Labs has expanded its product line to include a free version of its flagship 'Work for Us' product specifically designed for SMBs. This will give SMBs free access to Work4 Labs' all-in-one social recruiting solution, and for the first time allow those firms to take advantage of the world's largest pool of potential candidates.



Company Poised for Rapid Growth with Support from Industry Experts

After 18 months of focused product development and customer acquisition, Work4 Labs has made significant headway in addressing fundamental problems in the recruitment market and is seeing a substantial demand for its services. To this end, the company raised $11 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Matrix Partners, with participation from a select group of angel investors, including Digital Sky Technologies (DST) founder, Yuri Milner, former Monster.com President, Steve Pogorzelski, and Hearsay Social co-founder and CEO, Clara Shih. Matrix general partner Dana Stalder has joined the company's board of directors.

"Recruitment is the next big thing to come to Facebook - it's a natural fit, but until now, it has not lived up to its potential," noted Mr. Stalder. "What Work4 Labs does is much bigger than the white collar or tech-focused recruiting services out there. It allows companies to find and communicate with candidates for all types of jobs, and enables companies to target with a new degree of specificity, whether it's finding a lab technician in Omaha or a waitress in Italy."

"We are privileged to have assembled such a remarkable group of investors to help us fuel the continued growth of our company," stated Mr. Le Viet. "We could not have asked for a more knowledgeable and collaborative team of experts to validate our business and technology. We are enormously grateful for their unique contributions."

About Work4 Labs: Work4 Labs develops Facebook's #1 corporate recruiting solution which enables tens of thousands of companies - including SAP, Gap and Accenture - to hire qualified candidates across industries, geographies, and pay-grades on Facebook and other social networks. Its award-winning products help recruiters easily launch branded enterprise-grade corporate career sites on Facebook and drive traffic, job applications and employee referrals from the network's ~1 billion users. Work4 Labs was founded in 2010, and is backed by Matrix Partners and individual investors including Yuri Milner, Steve Pogorzelski, and Clara Shih. It is headquartered in San Francisco with an additional office in Paris, France.

About Matrix Partners: Matrix Partners is a premier venture capital firm that has generated outstanding returns for more than three decades. By focusing on early-stage investments and emphasizing long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, the firm has delivered several of the industry's top performing funds of all time. Matrix Partners has offices in Cambridge and Waltham, MA; New York, NY; Palo Alto, CA; Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Shanghai, China. Matrix Partners has invested in several game-changing, industry-leading businesses such as Apple Computer, Gilt Groupe, JBoss, Netezza, Phone.com, Polyvore, Starent Networks, Sycamore Networks, Veritas, Zendesk, and Zong.
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