Job listing site operator Glassdoor Inc. disclosed that it has raised $70 million at a valuation of close to $1 billion as it continues to plan for an initial public offering. The Mill Valley, Calif.-based company has 27 million users globally and over 2,000 customers.
Funding round led by Google Capital, Tiger Capital
Glassdoor announced that Google Capital, the search engine’s late-stage growth equity fund, and Tiger Global led this latest funding round, which also includes Battery Ventures and Sutter Hill Ventures. This brings the job listing site operator’s total funding to just over $160 million.
Citing people familiar with the matter, Eric Newcomer of Bloomberg reports that the funding round values Glassdoor in the range of $1 billion, which is about double its valuation from the company’s December 2013 funding round. As reported by ValueWalk, in 2013, Glassdoor secured $50 million to fuel global growth and expand its recruiting platform.
Though Tiger Capital Management had already put money into Glassdoor Inc., Google Capital is a new investor.
Google Capital – The new Glassdoor investor
Glassdoor is an online marketplace where employees can anonymously review their workplaces and also connect with new job opportunities. It competes with LinkedIn Corp. and Indeed, the job search site purchased by Recruit Holdings Co. for an undisclosed sum in October 2012.
Glassdoor may be best known for its rankings, but the company also runs one of the largest job search and recruiting platforms, with 27 million members. It has over 31,500 companies using its Free Employer Accounts to respond to reviews, and its users have generated over 7.5 million reviews, ratings and salary reports that now cover over 340,000 companies in over 190 countries and territories.
In a canned statement today, Laela Sturdy, a partner at Google Capital, said: “With a $90 billion recruiting and employment market, there’s enormous opportunity for growth.”
Interestingly, last month Glassdoor’s seventh annual Employees’ Choice Awards 2015 ranked Google Inc. at the top of the list, though tech companies didn’t dominate the 2015 Best Places to Work list.
Glassdoor was co-founded in 2007 by Chief Executive Robert Hohman, who earlier worked at the online travel site Expedia, along with Tim Besse and Rich Barton. Barton had founded Expedia and went on to co-found both Glassdoor and online real estate marketplace Zillow.
Robert Hohman indicated that even though the job site operator had to turn away several investors, including some that had participated in previous rounds, Google Capital was chosen for its ability to help Glassdoor scale both technically and operationally.
