Boss Zhipin – whose CEO had eyed going public at the end of this year in the US – has been said to have raised a Series E funding round from Tencent.
Chinese recruitment platform, Boss Zhipin (Boss直聘), carried out a Series E funding round worth over 'hundreds of millions of dollars' led by Tencent, 36Kr (KRKR: NASDAQ) speculated. "Tencent held over 10% of the hiring platform's shares after this round," the speculators added.
Boss Zhipin has avoided answering the questions regarding the rumor.
The eight-years-old Beijing-based employee/employer matchmaking platform carried out its last financing round in September 2016, worth USD 28 million. The platform broke even in late 2017 and began generating profit in 2018 with billions of Chinese yuan in revenues generated annually, Technode learned. The platform disclosed it had 63.7 million registered users as of September 2019, yet the MAU information is not known.
Unlike Linkedin, the platform focuses on facilitating recruitment rather than professional sharing and networking. The app is used more like the Recruit-owned (6098: JP) hiring app Indeed. Yet it is slightly different, with a practical Chinese touch. A job applicant can only submit their CV after an employer checks their profile. Only then they move on with the negotiation phase.
The name is Boss Zhipin, literally ‘boss is hiring," because the platform motivates recruiters to engage with the applicants directly. The company's next strategic move is to focus on matchmaking among more blue-collar workers, of whom there are hundreds of millions in China, 36kr added.
Boss Zhipin has fared well in the competitive arena so far. Maimai (脉脉), the company's IDG-backed peer in the mainland, is said to be a unicorn after its USD 200 million Series D round in August 2018. LinkedIn is another player in China, who has bet big on the Chinese labor market.
Yet, with its unique and results-driven communication platform, Boss Zhipin has had an eye-catching growth amongst tens of other recruitment apps so far.