College seniors finishing up their last semesters in 2020 expected to graduate going into the most robust market in history. Instead, the pandemic hit, causing an unprecedented disruptive effect on the job market and on corporations seeking talent. RippleMatch is a virtual-first early-recruitment platform that lets employers connect with college students and recent graduates that they may not have otherwise. As the pandemic also exposed the lack of diversity in the workplace, the platform also helps ensure that employers are recruiting from diverse talent pools. RippleMatch allows employers to tap into a pool of candidates from 1300+ universities and provides supporting solutions for recruitment marketing, branding, virtual events, and analytics.
AlleyWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Andrew Myers to learn more about how RippleMatch helps corporations attract diverse candidates, the company’s future strategic plans, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $34.2M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
The latest round was $23.5M. The round was led by Invus Opportunities with participation from Renegade Partners and Gaingels as well as existing investors G20, Work-Bench, Alleycorp, Bullpen Capital, and Accomplice.
Tell us about the product or service that RippleMatch offers.
RippleMatch offers a comprehensive platform designed to help employers hire the right early career talent virtually, build diverse, high-performing teams, and improve the candidate experience.
The platform automatically identifies and engages the right candidates from more than 1,300 college campuses, empowering teams to streamline recruiter workflows and use data to inform strategic decisions and measure success.
What inspired the start of RippleMatch?
My cofounder, Eric Ho, and I started RippleMatch because we knew we wanted to spend our careers building technology that made finding a job more fair, effective, and fun. We believed so strongly in this mission that I dropped out of Yale before my senior year, while Eric turned down an incredible opportunity at Facebook!
Finding a job shouldn’t be about who your parents know, what zip code you live in, or how well you did on the SAT. It should be about what you can contribute. We still have a long way to go, but it’s been incredible to watch the movement towards making hiring more fair, effective, and data-driven take-off.
How is RippleMatch different?
Within one comprehensive platform, RippleMatch offers integrated solutions for early-career recruitment teams including candidate sourcing, diversity recruitment, recruitment marketing, employer branding, virtual events, and recruiting analytics.
Used by leading employers including Amazon, SAP, and eBay to reach over one million job seekers, the RippleMatch platform drives key employer results including:
- 55x more schools reached
- 50% more underrepresented minority applicants
- 3x improvement in brand awareness
What market does RippleMatch target and how big is it?
RippleMatch supports companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune 500, who are looking to source and hire early-career talent from college campuses.
What’s your business model?
RippleMatch is free for college students to sign up and search for jobs. Employers who would like to use the platform pay an annual subscription fee ranging between $25,000 and $250,000.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business??
Over the course of several months, COVID-19 forced college recruitment teams to upend tried-and-true strategies and reshape their approach to finding and connecting with early-career talent. From virtual events to remote recruitment to online internships, traditional recruitment strategies faced countless changes and rapid adaptations
Given the challenges our customers were facing, we realized there was a tremendous opportunity to bring recruiters together and form a community around open, honest discussion on how to overcome the current environment. We hosted COVID-19 & Recruiting Community Chats and our first-ever Virtual Summit, which brought together hundreds of recruiters.
Given the shift to virtual recruitment, we also recently launched two new additions to our platform: Events, which empowers early career recruiting teams to host and promote virtual events; and Candidate Relationship Management (CRM), which helps recruiters track candidate relationships from initial contact to hire, and nurture those relationships through easy sharing of marketing content, recruitment events, and open jobs
What was the funding process like?
Great. The round was heavily oversubscribed. We had some fantastic options and ultimately got to choose a group of investors that aligned with our mission and values.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Fundraising is always hard work even when it goes well! I’d say the biggest challenge is keeping your focus on the day-to-day of the business while also taking lots of investor meetings.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We have been fortunate to build a rapidly growing and loyal customer base and have the highest candidate satisfaction of any platform in the space. Early career hiring is a huge addressable market, and we are well-positioned to become the market leader. I think the great team we have in place was also a big factor.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’ll continue to invest in our platform to help early-career recruiting teams understand their data and build a recruiting pipeline that more accurately mirrors the demographics of the broader U.S. population. And, we’ll continue to grow the team — if you’re interested in joining, apply at ripplematch.com/careers.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Fundraising is a lot like sales. You need to be thoughtful about your target audience, lining up the right introductions, and then managing your pipeline. I also think authenticity is really important – you want to make sure you are spending time with people who genuinely share your values and vision.
Fundraising is a lot like sales. You need to be thoughtful about your target audience, lining up the right introductions, and then managing your pipeline. I also think authenticity is really important – you want to make sure you are spending time with people who genuinely share your values and vision.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC?
Casa Mono is amazing and the people there are so nice.
