Gupy, a Brazilian HR tech company with 22.5 million registered users, secured BRL 500 million in a round led by SoftBank Latin America and Riverwood funds and followed by Endeavor Catalyst, as well as Oria Capital and MAYA Capital, which already invested in the startup. This is the largest funding ever received by an HR platform in Latin America.
Founded in 2015 by Mariana Dias, Bruna Guimarães, Guilherme Dias, and Robson Ventura, Gupy became known in the market for its artificial intelligence-based solutions to automate and increase the assertiveness rate in recruitment and hiring processes.
The startup serves more than 1,500 companies from a variety of sectors, such as Ambev and Renner, Itaú and Santander, and is also present in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru. In 2021, 480,000 hirings were done through the platform, which boasts an assertiveness rate of 70%.
Gupy’s business area is tricky: recruitment and hiring processes are often the target of criticism from candidates and a major cause of headaches for HR professionals. A transparent, inclusive, diverse, and assertive process is expected, with tools that save the time of both candidates and recruiters and a strong digital component. And this is even more true the greater the supply and demand for remote jobs.
In an interview with LABS, Mariana Dias, Gupy’s CEO and co-founder, said that the startup was born aiming to boost employability in Brazil. In the last few years, the debate about employability is no longer just a matter of “offer and filling job positions”, but a discussion about diversity, equal opportunities, and lack of skilled workforce. In this context, Gupy knew how to position itself accurately.
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The startup started offering an artificial intelligence-driven recruitment solution, but soon it realized that the HR sector, lacking technology, needed more and launched two other solutions: Gupy Hiring, a product that automates the entire hiring process; and a corporate education solution, through the acquisition of Niduu, a platform that uses microlearning and gamification for employee training, upskilling and reskilling.
The labor market has been changing very fast and the gateway is recruitment. How to make a recruitment process with a better experience for both candidates and recruiters? In the pandemic, this was amplified and HR technology started to meet the demand for hiring and reskilling as well. How do you hire hundreds of new employees remotely? How do companies reskill their staff and retain their talents? Gupy has been trying to answer these questions with technology and innovation.
Mariana Dias, CEO and co-founder at Gupy
Gupy’s most recent product, launched last July, addresses a growing demand in the job market: the startup has developed a diversity solution to increase opportunities for minority audiences and help companies make hiring processes fairer, more diverse and inclusive. “Companies are looking much more at the diversity agenda. Our solution helps, with technical and legal backing, companies identify who the candidates with diversity are and attract them.”
Among the companies that joined the diversity solution, there was a 55% increase in hiring minority people in the first month. In four months, the average percentage is even higher, at 72%. Considering all hires, Gupy saw a 127.8% increase in women, non-white, LGBTQIA+, and people with disabilities hires in August and September compared to the same period in 2020.
With the new investment, Gupy wants to expand its client company and user base and develop new solutions for the HR chain, also looking at the other side, at the professionals who are looking for job opportunities.
The kick-off was the launch of Portal de Vagas, a free job marketplace where candidates can find more than 20,000 positions from companies all over Brazil. Gupy plans to include new features soon, such as filters to find the best-fit jobs and know about the competition for the position.
“Our focus, for now, is Brazil; we will continue innovating the HR employability chain, from recruitment to training, to help talents, employees, and HR professionals,” said Mariana.
