Austrian HR startup hokify acquired by Austrian HR platform karriere.at, Austrian media reported. Hokify was sold for a seven digit sum, but the exact amount, as agreed by both sides, remains undisclosed. The new capital, as reported, will be used for the planned German expansion.
“With the investment, hokify wants to accelerate its growth and establish itself within the next five years as the market leader in blue-collar recruiting section for skilled workers in Germany and Austria,” says in a press release, Austrian web-portal Der Brutkasten reported. The company will invest the capital in the expansion of the team and in marketing campaigns in Germany. Currently the startup has 25 employees in this country.
For the investor, karriere.at, the success of hokify is the main reason for the investment.
“The acute skills shortage requires innovative solutions, especially in the blue collar segment. The success of hokify confirms our decision in favor of a strategic partnership, an expansion of our investment was the next logical step”, said Klaus Hofbauer, managing partner of karriere.at, in a press release.
Founded in 2015 by Daniel Laiminger, Simon Tretter and Karl Edlbauer , hokify is an Austrian startup specialized in the recruitment of professionals in the tourism, catering, craft and commercial sectors. According to the company info, the hokify app and website have been on the market since March 2016, helping more than 15,000 people successfully find a new job.
With this new investment, the founders, Daniel Simon and Karl will remain with 10% each of the shares in the company, while the rest 70% now belong to karriere.at. However, operatively, hokify should remain independent from karriere.at.
This is not the first time for Karrier.at to support hokify. Namely, in 2016 Michael Altrichter, Karriere.at and Startup300 took part in the TV program “2 Minuten 2 Millionen” where hokify participated. The hokify’s founders managed to convince the jury in the prosperity of their startup thus securing one million euros. Now with the second investment, even though the amount of funding remains undisclosed, Austrian media speculate for a sum in a range of a seven digit number, but definitely higher than one million euros.
Today, thousands of companies in Austria and Germany rely on hokify to find qualified employees. Reportedly hokify is used by more than 350,000 users per month for job search and job application. In contrast to traditional career portals, hokify offers the opportunity to complete the job search and application on the smartphone.
Since the company has invested heavily in the apps for smartphones, the platform is very popular among young users.
Karrier.at on the other side is, as reported by the company, Austria’s largest career portal and market leader in online recruiting that combines suitable candidates with the best employers.
Job seekers can find suitable jobs and companies on karriere.at and can also let themselves be discovered by employers. Interested parties also gain insights into the working background of the job seekers.
