Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
June 10-16, 2024:
• Taking a big step forward: JobGet acquires frontline market Wirkn to expand retail footprint;
• Adding fuel to the fire: Paris-based startup Mistral AI raises $640M to compete with OpenAI;
• Building a business in the trades: Crafthunt receives €3M to recruit construction workers;
• Playing the ostrich in America: Survey finds majority of people wrongly think US is in recession;
• Reprising the Untouchables: FTC Chair Khan says the agency is pursuing Big Tech ‘mob bosses.’
PLUS
Worldclass content and business-building connections at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum. Register right now for the only conference in the EMEA market that is specifically designed both for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and to accelerate the bottom-line growth of their enterprises. Why the rush? Because the conference will be held September 17-19, 2024 in Paris at Cercle National des Armées, and it has a limited seating capacity. So, register today and accelerate the success your company achieves, today, tomorrow and into the future!
JobGet Acquires Wirkn to Expand Retail Footprint
JobGet, the fastest-growing app-first hiring platform connecting over 70 million Everyday Workers with the nation’s most recognized brands, today announced the acquisition of Wirkn, a leading platform in the frontline recruitment market. This strategic move to partner with shopping centers and malls allows JobGet to offer a tailored frontline solution to even more employers and job seekers. The acquisition will enable JobGet to provide Wirkn's extensive network of over 17,000 mall, retail, and restaurant locations with a broader reach of applicants. Unlike traditional job boards, JobGet’s app-first approach provides deeper job-seeker insights and leverages AI to match skills to jobs that job seekers might need help finding. This results in a broader reach and higher responsiveness from applicants, leading to a lower cost-per-applicant and improved hiring outcomes. JobGet's understanding of the nuances of the everyday talent market further enhances these benefits.
Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI raises $640 million
Mistral AI has closed its much-rumored Series B funding round, raising €600 million (around $640 million at today’s exchange rate) in a mix of equity and debt. General Catalyst led the round. As TechCrunch previously reported, the startup is now valued at $6 billion following this funding round. As a reminder, Mistral AI is a relatively new entrant in the artificial intelligence space. The company raised a massive $112 million seed round around a year ago to set up a European rival to OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI giants. Co-founded by alumni from Meta and Google’s DeepMind, the company is working on foundational models with the aim to rival the best performing models today, such as OpenAI’s GPT-4o, Anthropic’s Claude 3 and Meta’s Llama 3.
Crafthunt receives 3 million euros to combat the shortage of skilled workers in the construction industry
Crafthunt, Europe's largest career platform for the construction industry, has successfully closed a seed funding round, raising €3 million from UVC Partners, Redstone and well-known angel investors. The German construction industry is struggling with an increasing shortage of skilled workers, which is likely to become even more acute over the next 15 years. Crafthunt offers an app-based solution to this problem. The platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) for an automated matching system that places job offers with suitable talent in Germany and abroad. Companies can use meaningful profiles to raise awareness of their employer brand and present relevant information such as vacancies, languages spoken, machines and tools. The matching algorithm then finds the right skilled workers with the required knowledge and experience.
Majority of Americans wrongly believe US is in recession – and most blame Biden
Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer. The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including: 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low. Many Americans put the blame on Biden for the state of the economy, with 58% of those polled saying the economy is worsening due to mismanagement from the presidential administration.
FTC Chair Lina Khan tells TechCrunch the agency is pursuing the ‘mob bosses’ in Big Tech
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is focusing its efforts on going after Big Tech, according to FTC Chair Lina Khan, who spoke at TechCrunch’s Strictly VC event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Khan said the agency is focused on going after the players that are doing the biggest harm, as opposed to just increasing the number of cases that it brings forward. “One thing that’s been important for me is to make sure that we’re actually looking at where we see the biggest harm,” Khan said. “Where do we see players that are systematically driving these illegal behaviors? Being able to go after the ‘mob boss’ is going to be more effective than going after the henchman at the bottom. ”The comments come a few days after The Wall Street Journal reported that the FTC is opening up an antitrust probe of Microsoft over its partnership with Inflection AI. The FTC and the Department of Justice have struck a deal to investigate Microsoft, Open AI and Nvidia over potential antitrust violations, according to The New York Times.
Do Great Deals & Gather Strategic Intel at TAtech Europe
Worldclass content and business-building connections at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum. Register right now for the only conference in the EMEA market that is specifically designed both for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and to accelerate the bottom-line growth of their enterprises. Why the rush? Because the conference will be held September 17-19, 2024 in Paris at Cercle National des Armées, and it has a limited seating capacity. Whether your company is a niche or general job board, aggregator, talent marketplace, online classifieds business, programmatic platform, chatbot, conversational AI solution, ATS, recruitment marketing solution, CRM platform, interviewing or assessment system or talent technology consultancy, this event will supercharge your sales and your profits. So, register today and accelerate the success your company achieves, today, tomorrow and into the future!