Randstad arm invests in Focus Orange platform Crunchr
The venture fund of staffing giant Randstad has completed its Seed financing of the Technology unit of Focus Orange, a Netherlands-based human capital consulting firm. The investment is directed at the development of Crunchr, Focus Orange’s analytics platform.
Founded in 2007, by Dirk Jonker, Focus Orange is a human resources consultancy that specialises in human capital advisory services such as total rewards, retirement and compensation & benefits outsourcing. The Amsterdam-based firm, which currently has a team of over 25 professionals, also serves clients with Crunchr, a suite of SaaS based HR analytics solutions that supports executives and HR Directors with decision-making. “Crunchr collects, validates and consolidates people data into meaningful insights around strategic workforce planning, succession, talent management and employee preferences. Analyses are presented in multi-dimensional reports while the built-in learn function helps users translate insights into action. Crunchr complies with the international standards on data privacy and integrity, and is implemented within weeks without business disruption,” comments Jonker, who leads Crunchr.
Since the launch of Crunchr 1.5 years ago the platform has seen growing fortune. Several large organisations have joined the likes of Randstad, Arcadis and Deloitte – who joined as launching customers back in October 2014 – in using the platform, and as a result Focus Orange last year unveiled that it had set plans to grow internationally with Crunchr. The innovative human capital platform has also shown up on the radar of analysts, with Gartner’s ‘Cool Vendor’ recognition in its 2015 Cool Vendors in Human Capital Management (HCM) report the most noteworthy.
As part of Crunchr’s expansion goals, the platform has attracted Seed financing from Randstad Innovation Fund (RIF), the venture arm of Randstad, with 29,000 employees in 39 countries one of the largest flexible work firms of the globe. Randstad launched the corporate venture fund in March 2014, and since the fund has invested in six companies which the company labels as “disruptors” to the talent acquisition and workforce management industry. “Crunchr fits Randstad’s objective to offer comprehensive total talent management solutions,” says Randstad Executive Board member Linda Galipeau. “We have high expectations of Crunchr’s HR-analytics tool and of its potential to give our clients insights in their human capital and workforce planning.”
Jonker says he is “thrilled” to have attracted the financial support of Randstad Innovation Fund, a move which he says will accelerate the development of Crunchr and support the scale up in Western Europe and the United States. “We are at the forefront of HR data analytics,” says Jonker, adding that he looks forward to the months ahead.
