Job boards won’t cut it anymore — even for non-technical roles. That’s why ZoomInfo is buying the employer review site Comparably to build out its TalentOS candidate acquisition platform.
The companies announced the acquisition for an undisclosed sum on Monday, which will help ZoomInfo — a $19 billion data broker that sells to marketers and salespeople — level up TalentOS. Comparably will bring its employer branding service to TalentOS, which helps clients find candidates and contact them.
“It was always hard to fill engineering roles on job boards, but you could fill sales and marketing and finance and design, and certainly retail jobs,” said Jason Nazar, co-founder and CEO of Comparably. “Today, it’s a completely different dynamic, where you have to spend so much time and money directly sourcing candidates.”
Comparably has been growing 150% year-over-year, Nazar told Protocol, and saw more than 20 million visitors come to its reviews site last year. The site is free to job seekers, and doesn’t run ads.
Instead, employers — which range from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses — pay for branding and recruitment marketing tools, salary data and competitive analysis. (Comparably touts that it only allows current employees to post reviews, and doesn’t allow customers to remove or alter ratings or reviews.)
TalentOS has also taken off since it launched in June 2021. The platform has more than 1,000 customers, with TalentOS revenue growing 50% between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022.
Nazar said Comparably’s more than 15 million reviews should bolster the platform further.
“If you look at our combined reach of traffic, and what we add to the footprint of already the millions and millions of people that come to ZoomInfo every single month, that’s pretty powerful,” Nazar said.
Nazar, a serial entrepreneur who sold his startup Docstoc to Intuit in 2013, co-founded Comparably in 2015 with Yammer co-founder George Ishii, InvestedIn co-founder Yadid Ramot and DebtMarket co-founder Michael Sheridan. Greycroft Partners led Comparably’s $7.25 series A investment round in 2017, with other investments from Comcast Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Upfront Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Alpha Edison, Cornerstone on Demand, Accelerator Ventures and Rincon Ventures.
Ramot and Sheridan remain at Comparably as its CTO and COO, respectively.
Nazar and the rest of the Comparably team will join ZoomInfo, Nazar said. ZoomInfo, which has 3,000 employees, will also grow Comparably’s team of under 100. The Comparably brand and product will remain intact, Nazar said, but will “integrate deeply” with the TalentOS platform over this year. Later in 2022, companies will be able to buy both products together, Nazar said.
