MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Jan. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AllyO, the technology company renowned for its end-to-end AI recruiting solution, today revealed its 2018 results as it moves forward into 2019.
Kick-starting last year with a $14M Series A funding announcement from leaders like Google and Randstad that brought the company out of two years in stealth mode and into the limelight, AllyO saw rapid momentum, welcoming a 250 percent increase in enterprise clients year over year and growing their relationship with several others. Companies entrusting AllyO with their recruiting needs include IDT, Master Brand Cabinets, National Safety Apparel and Prohpix Software, in addition to a Fortune 500 technology company, international coffee chain and an independent global energy company.
By year-end, AllyO helped clients reach optimal staffing levels without additional spend while decreasing time to hire by up to 70 percent. Able to focus energies on higher touch, higher value activities, multiple AllyO clients managed up to 83 percent more requisitions, engaging new and existing employees at a greater rate, all while delivering on business goals.
AllyO also helped its clients reach out to employees in need, including those affected by natural disasters like Hurricane Michael. Through constant and continued outreach, these clients gained insight into sentiment trends across roles and locations, strengthening its position for future hiring.
Jason Zigman, vice president of Recruiting - East Coast for Allied Universal, shared, “AllyO’s willingness and ability to build this tool as a part of our holistic solution was the main deciding factor in moving forward with them. Additionally, they have incorporated our feedback in thoughtful ways to make the tool easier to use and improve the user experience. I have full confidence that the tool will consistently grow and ultimately will become better than any past solution we utilized.”
Ongoing Enhancements
Powering these client success stories, AllyO continued to advance its product offering, rolling out a series of new releases throughout the year. These include the recent integration with WhatsApp Business, with AllyO becoming the first AI recruiter available on the popular WhatsApp platform. In effect, this partnership opened up a wholly new communication channel for global employers to find and engage with previously untapped candidates.
Last fall, the company introduced Talent Pool Engagement and Employee Referral features, working to broaden recruiting’s reach and build a deeper talent pool. Over the summer, AllyO announced the availability of New Hire Check-In and Calendar Integration & Interview Scheduling, cutting down on the administrative burden and speeding up the hiring process.
Ben Eubanks, principal analyst at Lighthouse Research & Advisory, and the author of “Artificial Intelligence for HR: Use AI to Support and Develop a Successful Workforce,” shared, “We already know that AI is changing the world of work, and with it the way the HR professionals and recruiters interact with potential candidates and ultimately, employees. By incorporating intelligent automation throughout the talent acquisition process, from start to finish, AllyO is streamlining the talent acquisition function, delivering the high-touch experience candidates have come to expect in today's tight talent market.”
Growth and Expansion
In addition to expanding product, AllyO also grew its team to 70 full-time employees, welcoming seven new members to the leadership team. Back in February, Shobhit Gupta joined as head of Business Strategy & Operations, along with Nick Possley, head of Data Products & Engineering. Ani Sanyal and Victor Pavlov came onboard in March as head of Worldwide Sales and Bot Systems Engineering Manager, respectively, with Dana Polyak, head of Customer Success, starting in April. This growth continued into the summer, with the hires of David Bernstein as head of Partnerships and Bennett Sung as head of Marketing.
Company co-founder Sahil Sahni, commented, “We knew 2018 was going to be a big year for AllyO. From closing our funding round to scoring some tremendous client wins, on-target product development to amazing team growth, we made the most of every opportunity and demonstrated exactly what we’re here to do – streamlining recruiting through AI and a hefty dose of delight. We're ready, willing and eager to take on 2019 and continue on our mission of making recruiting more efficient for everyone.”
Sahil continued, “We raised capital with a promise to hit four milestones in 24 months. Thanks to our outstanding customers and team, we hit each of these within 12 months, landing AllyO, I believe, in the top 1 percent of startups. These milestones include scaling recurring revenue almost four times while driving over 40 percent of new dollars from expanding enterprise-wide across our 2017 customers; achieving unit economics with marginal payback under five months; 94 percent applicant experience and 97 percent customer service feedback scores; and most importantly helping more than 1 percent of the U.S. find a job in 2018 alone.”
A Winning Year
In the midst of everything else, AllyO managed to attract attention from seemingly every corner of the talent acquisition space and taking home four coveted awards. The company’s season of winning started with recognition as a Human Resource Executive® Top HR Product of 2018, which looks at products based on the level of innovation, value added to the HR function, intuitiveness for the user and ability to deliver on what it promises. Shortly after, AllyO received a nod from analyst firm, Gartner, in its annual “Cool Vendor for Human Capital Management in Talent Acquisition” report.
Two more wins followed, taking home the top prize in Staffing Industry Analysts’ Collaboration in Gig Economy “Shark Tank” Competition and gold from the Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Technology Awards for Best Advance in Emerging Talent Acquisition Technology.
Ankit Somani, AllyO co-founder, said, “The last year was an absolute whirlwind of activity, capped off with a series of exciting wins, on both the client and product side, as well as the industry at large. We’re setting the bar high for the year with a solid roadmap, designed to strengthen our current offerings and innovate further with new modules and core technologies that include everything within AI to analytics. With everything built in-house and to enterprise-grade specifications, we’re positioning the company to conquer 2019. Stay tuned for big things from AllyO.”
About AllyO
AllyO is an AI technology company with a simple mission – make recruiting delightful and efficient for everyone. It addresses the traditional inefficiencies of lost applicants and conversions due to poor candidate experience, the high cost of recruiting due to overburdening of administrative tasks on hiring teams and lack of visibility and control for HR leadership. It utilizes deeply conversational AI to fully automate an end-to-end recruiting workflow by intelligently engaging via texting over mobile and web. It is used by Fortune 500 enterprises that have experienced a 2-6X increase in applicant capture and conversion rate, 91 percent application completion rate and over 50 percent reduction in cost and time to hire. AllyO is backed by leading investors such as Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), Randstad Innovation Fund, Bain Capital Ventures, and Cervin Ventures. AllyO is headquartered in Mountain View, California. For additional information, please visit us at allyo.com, LinkedIn or Twitter.