HiPeople Raises $3M Seed to Revolutionize Reference Checks

HiPeople, a Berlin-based HR technology company focused on automating the process of gathering professional references, has secured $3 million in seed funding.

This funding round was led by Moonfire, an investment firm spearheaded by Mattias Ljungman, and also included contributions from Capnamic Ventures and Cherry Ventures. This investment follows a previous pre-seed round of $1.1 million completed in late 2019. Remarkably, the seed funding was finalized entirely through remote interactions, with no face-to-face meetings taking place, as noted by HiPeople’s founders, Jakob Gillmann and Sebastian Schüller, in a communication with me.

HiPeople states that these funds will be allocated to facilitate expansion, allowing a greater number of recruitment professionals to utilize automated reference checks for remote hiring practices. Looking ahead, the company is developing a candidate analytics platform designed to deliver comprehensive data and actionable insights for each applicant, supporting what they describe as “data-driven” recruitment strategies.

Gillmann and Schüller explain that HiPeople operates within the broader field of talent intelligence. Their core objective is to enhance the hiring process by automatically collecting and analyzing candidate data, and then providing valuable insights. Currently, HiPeople achieves this by automating the entire reference check process – from the initial request to data collection and analysis – enabling organizations to gain a more complete understanding of candidates without increasing manual effort.

The software-as-a-service platform is designed to provide a streamlined experience for recruiters, delivering “reliable, thorough reference checks they can depend on.” HiPeople reports that its users typically gather twice the number of references per candidate, while reducing the time spent on this task by 50%. The founders emphasize that traditional reference checks are often underutilized due to their manual nature, typically being reserved for senior-level positions. HiPeople aims to revitalize the practice and unlock richer talent insights through an innovative approach.

HiPeople’s client base includes rapidly expanding startups, scaling tech companies, and well-established mid-market organizations. For instance, Celonis, a process mining company that has doubled its global workforce to 1,200 employees in the past year, leverages HiPeople to enhance the quality of hires across its offices in San Francisco, Munich, and Tokyo. HiPeople explains that Celonis utilizes automated reference checks to make hiring decisions based on verified information regarding areas for development, skills, teamwork abilities, and professional values.

Mattias Ljungman of Moonfire adds: “The automation of repetitive workflows, and access to candidate insights that extend beyond the typical resume, represent significant challenges for recruiters. The shift towards remote work, accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, has further complicated the process of identifying the right talent. HiPeople has created a solution that empowers hiring managers to make more informed decisions, streamline their processes, and accelerate the hiring cycle.”

According to Gillmann and Schüller, HiPeople’s primary competition in Europe consists of the existing methods and infrastructure used by recruiters for manual reference checks. In the United States, companies such as Xref and Crosschq are more direct competitors in the automated reference check space.