Capital One participated through its corporate venturing arm Capital One Ventures. Other backers included venture capital firm General Catalyst, which led the round, along with Foundation Capital, IVP and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Launched in 2016, Eightfold runs a software platform which applies artificial intelligence to various public and human relations data points to help organisations hire and develop talent more effectively. The company has received $180m in venture funding.
Eightfold is one of the relatively few unicorns in the broader HR tech space.
Corporate-backed rounds in that space more than doubled from 29 in 2014 to the 71 recorded by the end of last year. Total estimated capital deployed in more than tripled from $247m in 2014 to an estimated $831m in 2019, suggesting there have been few unicorns.
By the end of October2020, we had recorded 36 corporate-backed deals, worth an estimated $497m, a considerable slowdown. This is easy to explain given the global economic downturn, which led to a drop in active recruiting. However, HR tech will continue to be attractive longer term, as economies transition into a recovery phase.
