London-based investment fund, Fuel Ventures, has made a GBP275,000 investment in an online employee referral platform.
Real Links uses its web-based portal to help organisations lower recruitment costs by utilising their employee network, while improving employee engagement and staff retention.
An online platform aimed at helping businesses improve employee referrals and reduce hiring costs has secured GBP275,000 from London-based investment fund, Fuel Ventures.
Real Links works with organisations to improve hiring through their employee network and is the second company to receive investment from Fuel Ventures since raising GBP20 million in its third round.
Founded by business partners Sam Davies and Dan Krijgsman, Real Links uses its innovative web-based portal to make it easier for companies to increase employee engagement and participation in referral schemes while encouraging employees to share internal job vacancies.
Unlike many employee referral schemes, Real Links allows employees to collect points for all forms of participation rather than hires alone. Referees are awarded points and prizes for emails, shares, applications and hires, which is all tracked through an easy-to-use analytics dashboard.
The digital platform was created after the pair noticed a lack of engagement in their own employee referral schemes and realised there was a gap in the market for a platform that provides access to a pool of talent which would otherwise be difficult or expensive with which to connect.
Real Links will be using the investment from Fuel Ventures to expand its sales and business development teams and develop the second stage of its platform, which will allow employees to sync their social media contacts and automatically recommend connections who match to job descriptions.
Fuel Ventures is a venture capital firm that specialises in providing seed funding to early stage technology companies. It invests in founders who have the ambition to build a global, market leading company, with the passion and ability to execute. Fuel provides entrepreneurs with expertise and insights in business development, marketing and brand-building through its experience of building, scaling and exiting global companies.
Sam Davies, co-founder of Real Links, says: “Employee referral schemes have numerous benefits, from quicker hires to better staff retention and lower recruitment costs, but despite this, less than 10 per cent of annual hires currently come from referrals in the UK. The main reason for this low statistic is a lack of employee engagement.”
“I experienced this myself with previous employers, and that’s how Real Links came about. We have set out to help companies across the country to not only find and hire top talent at a low cost, but also to improve employee engagement and staff retention at the same time”
“The first stage of our platform is just the beginning, and we’re delighted to have secured funding from Fuel Ventures to take Real Links to the next stage.”
Mark Pearson, founder of Fuel Ventures, says: “Since our launch in 2014, we have been committed to investing in companies that we believe have exceptional growth potential, and this GBP20 million fund have given us fresh opportunity to support a wide variety of lucrative early-stage companies.”
“Real Links certainly has that potential. It is a fantastic, innovative business that is invaluable in terms of recruitment, staff engagement and employee retention and we look forward to supporting them on their path to success.”
