Moncton-based HR software company Qimple has raised $1.1 million in seed funding.
Qimple — which raised an initial investment of $500,000 from 500 Startups — received the $1.1 million investment from the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, with participation from Green Century Investment. Qimple’s total funding to date is $1.6 million.
“I was so impressed with Qimple’s performance for Audiobooks.com’s hiring needs that I decided to invest personally in the company,” said Sanjay Singhal, the Canadian venture partner for 500 Startups and founder of Audiobooks.com (500 Canada, which launched in March, is currently raising a fund).
Qimple will use the funding to grow its team and expand its software, which works to break down barriers associated with online hiring practices.
“I always told the team that I would not raise more money from investors until we ironed out core elements of the business.”
“Qimple understands the issues with online hiring and knows exactly what needs to happen to make it a better experience,” said co-founder and CEO Yves Boudreau. “The team respects that job searching can be a very emotional experience with feelings of stress, frustration, and sadness.” The company, which launched in 2015 as a simple hiring solution, currently counts Audiobooks.com and CareGuide among its clients, and since then, the company is approaching $1 million in revenue.
Despite these milestones, Boudreau said that he didn’t consider raising a seed round until now.”I always told the team that I would not raise more money from investors until we ironed out core elements of the business,” said Boudreau. “In the past few months, it’s become evident by how much love we get from our clients and our job seekers that we’ve got something great. So, this round was solely focused on building the proper growth channels to help us scale our company.”
Boudreau said that the supportive community in Moncton makes it easier to build a company; as “Atlantic Canada in general is rooting for us to win,” it makes it easy to compete for local talent. Ironically, though, the challenge for the hiring software company lies in finding specialized talent. “For instance, our user acquisition manager is in Toronto, but that’s fine, we always knew we’d have to build some components of our team remotely and we’ve become really good at it,” said Boudreau. “In terms of doing business, it does pose some credibility challenges at times. However, we keep defying the odds that it can be done here and that is helping change people’s perception of doing business in Atlantic Canada.”
Using the funding, the company is also planning to launch a Resume Snapshot Tool; while he wasn’t specific about what’s next for the company, Boudreau said that the company is working on changing “the way that companies and job seekers interact with each other.
“The Resume Snapshot tool presents consistent information for all applicants with the most advanced resume parsing technology,” said Boudreau. “Hiring managers are now able to consume more information in a shorter period of time, and the playing field is leveled out for job seekers.”