Shine Interview, a video-based recruitment/HR Tech SaaS platform, has received a £1.3 million investment to support its growth plans. The transaction includes £500,000 investment from the Finance Durham Fund, managed by Maven; £500,000 from the North East Venture Fund, managed by Mercia Asset Management; and £300,000 from Mercia’s EIS Fund.
The funding will enable the business to relocate its operations from Newcastle to County Durham, creating 20 new jobs in the area within the next 18 months, as well as investment in its sales and marketing resource and further R&D.Shine is a fully customisable and highly secure platform that facilitates a remote first end-to-end recruitment process for enterprises, SMEs, and recruitment firms. It does this primarily through live and pre-recorded video interviewing, alongside a suite of recruitment tools, including scheduling, diary management, video CVs and video based engagement tools.
The business aims to make the recruitment process easier, whilst improving the candidate and client journey, and the platform has been proven to cut the time and cost of hiring by up to 70%.
The talent management and recruitment software market is well established within the UK, with an estimated market size of £11 billion. Within this, one of the fastest growing markets is the talent assessment and hiring software market which is estimated to grow to £5 billion over the next three years.
Shine was founded in 2016 by experienced technology executive David Copple, who has over 20 years’ experience in the SaaS space and was previously the CTO of EduTech platform The Test Factory, where he helped to successfully scale the business to an exit in 2014. The business also benefits from the strategic input of Chairman Joe Slavin, the former CEO of fish4jobs and MD of Monster.co.uk.
“Shine has carved out a solid niche in the marketplace with a well-defined position. The business has enjoyed strong growth and is well placed to scale its technology and grow its team following its relocation to County Durham. David and the team have built an impressive business and it’s great to work with the North East Fund to provide a finance package that supports the company’s ambitious expansion plans.”
David Nixon, Senior Investment Manager at Maven.
"We’re delighted to further support Shine after making our first investment in 2018 and we are pleased to bring the Finance Durham Fund into the syndicate. It’s an exciting time for the business as clients look to integrate technology solutions into their hiring plans. We believe the company is well placed to build upon its network of enterprise partners with future growth.”
Ian Wilson, Fund Principal at Mercia.
"The recruitment landscape has changed over the last two years with the war for talent intensifying and hybrid and remote working becoming the norm. As a result, demand for our video based tools has soared and this investment will allow us to accelerate our growth plans significantly whilst bringing further innovations to our already world class platform. I’m hugely excited by this next stage of our journey”
David Copple, Founder at Shine.
“We are delighted to have been able to invest in Shine through Finance Durham, and also to assist the company to move to County Durham. It’s fantastic to support this innovative business as it grows into this expanding area of recruitment. We encourage more businesses to follow suit and access the funding opportunities we have available through our Business Durham team to create more and better jobs and contribute towards a strong competitive economy for the future.”
Cllr James Rowlandson, Portfolio holder for resources, investment and assets at Durham County Council.