BASEL, Switzerland and BOSTON, Dec. 11, 2024 — Lyfegen, a global leader in drug rebate management technology, today announced the successful close of its additional CHF 5 million Series A funding round. The round was led by TX Ventures, a leading European fintech investor, with additional participation from aMoon, a global health-tech venture capital firm, and other institutional investors. This funding represents a significant milestone for Lyfegen, enabling the company to accelerate its global expansion and innovation efforts, with a focus on extending its reach beyond Europe into new markets worldwide.

Addressing Rising Drug Costs with Intelligent Drug Pricing and Rebate Solutions

The healthcare industry faces increasing challenges with rising drug costs and the complexity of managing growing volumes of rebate agreements. For payers and pharmaceutical companies, manual processes often lead to inefficiencies, compliance risks, and operational delays. Lyfegen is transforming this process with its fully automated platform that ensures secure, real-time tracking, compliance, and operational efficiency at scale.

Today, 50+ leading healthcare organizations across 8 geographical markets rely on Lyfegen’s solutions to streamline 4,000+ rebate agreements while tracking over $1 billion in pharmaceutical revenue and managing over $0.5 billion in rebates annually. These solutions enable healthcare organizations to improve pricing strategies, accelerate access to modern treatments, and better manage rebate complexities.

Scaling Globally with a Leading Rebate Management Platform

Already used by healthcare payers and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, North America, and the Middle East, Lyfegen’s platform is poised for broader global deployment. By automating rebate management, the platform enables healthcare organizations to simplify complex agreements, save time, reduce errors, and enhance financial performance.

“The market for innovative and personalized treatments is expanding rapidly, but with that comes increasingly complex and costly pricing models,” says Girisha Fernando, CEO of Lyfegen. “Lyfegen’s automated solution simplifies this complexity, helping payers and pharmaceutical companies unlock the full potential of rebates while improving patient access to modern treatments. With this funding and our new partners, we’re ideally positioned to accelerate our growth and make a meaningful impact globally.”

Jens Schleuniger, Partner at TX Ventures, adds: “Lyfegen is at the forefront of innovation, offering payers and pharmaceutical companies a powerful solution to address the rising complexities of pharma rebates. We’re proud to lead this funding round and support Lyfegen’s mission to bring greater efficiency and cost savings to healthcare systems worldwide.”

About Lyfegen

Lyfegen is an independent provider of rebate management software designed for the healthcare industry. Lyfegen solutions are used by health insurances, governments, hospital payers, and pharmaceutical companies around the globe to dramatically reduce the administrative burden of managing complex drug pricing agreements and to optimize rebates and get better value from those agreements. Lyfegen maintains the world’s largest digital repository of innovative drug pricing models and public agreements and offers access to a robust drug pricing simulator designed to dynamically simulate complex drug pricing scenarios to understand the full financial impact. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, the company was founded in 2018 and has a market presence in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. Learn more at Lyfegen.com.

About TX Ventures

TX Ventures is one of Europe’s emerging leaders in early-stage fintech investing. The venture capital fund invests predominantly in B2B Fintech across Europe – preferably in seed to series A stage.

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For more information about Lyfegen’s solutions or to schedule an interview, please contact:
[email protected] 

SOURCE Lyfegen

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VCs favouring new investments over existing portfolio and have money to deploy
M&A expected to be strong
Top investor requirements – Team, Science and Differentiation

LONDON, Dec. 11, 2024 — Optimum Strategic Communications (‘Optimum’), the international strategic life sciences communications firm, today announces the results of its Optimum European Life Sciences Investor Survey 2025: Great Expectations – Will 2025 Live Up to its Promise? The survey explored the current sentiment of leading VC firms collectively managing c.$300 billion in life science focused assets.

2024 has been another challenging year for fundraising in life sciences and, while the industry has not seen ‘across the board’ resurgence in confidence or capital flows, Optimum’s 2025 survey does present some grounds for optimism.

Key takeaways:

• Investment criteria – The top three criteria investors are looking for when deciding to invest are: Great people, great science and differentiation.
• Key drivers of investment – 86% believe that the availability of capital will be a key driver in financing activity over the next 12 months, given increased pressure to deploy large funds raised and the influence of public market performance on private valuations and funding rounds.
• 57% of investors believe strong clinical data and promising innovation are the key drivers for investment, while 24% cited exits and returns as the most influential factors.
• Fundraising outlook – 60% of investors are confident in the fundraising outlook for the next year and they believe that well-prepared companies with strong fundamentals can secure funding, albeit possibly at lower valuations than previously expected.
• M&A – Investors believe there will continue to be strong M&A activity in 2025. Areas of focus are: cardiometabolic, immunology & inflammation, CNS and oncology.
• Capital deployment – Compared to last year’s [2024] survey results, investors are no longer prioritising their existing portfolios, and the past year has seen a notable tilt towards new investments.
• Appetite for obesity-related drugs has remained strong. Neurological and CNS disorders continue to attract attention, as recent data and new treatment mechanisms are bringing fresh investment opportunities.
• Funding stage – 52% of investors believe that Series B will be the most active funding stage, with some noting an increase in crossovers, given the IPO backlog.

Commenting on the findings, Mary Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Optimum Strategic Communications, said: “While the past year has been challenging, there have been a number of recent large fundraisings which suggest that the industry has turned a corner. The feedback these investors have given offers companies a valuable blueprint on how to attract investment. For the right story, the money is there. But accessing capital continues to be very competitive, and telling a strong and compelling investment story remains vital.”

If you would like to receive the complete report, please email [email protected] or download it from our website here.

About Optimum Strategic Communications

Optimum Strategic Communications is an international strategic life sciences consultancy which specialises in investor relations, corporate and financial communications. Our senior team of healthcare specialists, based in London, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Zurich, San Francisco, San Diego and New York, are experienced and trusted advisors to some of the world’s most exciting public and private companies, both large and small, across pharmaceuticals, biotech, medtech, health tech, healthcare services and industrial biotechnology.

Over the last 25 years, our team has worked with over 400 healthcare companies, advising them on financial communications and investor relations, including major corporate activity such as fundraising, IPOs, M&A, as well as corporate reputation and crisis scenarios.

We have an exceptional network of contacts across the international investment community in Europe and the US; contacts we have built and maintained over the last three decades. The Optimum team includes ex-fund managers and analysts, as well as financial and corporate communications specialists.

For more information, please visit www.optimumcomms.com.

SOURCE Optimum Strategic Communications

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• Proceeds will be used to enable key late-stage clinical trial readouts for assets across several underserved neurological diseases with high unmet medical need.
• EQT Life Sciences has led the extension, and joins a consortium of prominent global biotechnology investors.
• The investment builds on EQT Life Sciences’ previous successful partnership with neurology-focused repeat entrepreneur and Noema Pharma CEO Ilise Lombardo, MD

STOCKHOLM, Dec. 11, 2024 — EQT Life Sciences is pleased to announce that the LSP 7 fund has invested in Noema Pharma (“the Company”). The clinical-stage biotech company headquartered in Basel, Switzerland is developing a pipeline of first-in-disease therapeutics that address central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The Series B extension brings the total capital raised in the round to CHF 130 million, including prior investments from Forbion, Jeito Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Gilde Healthcare, Polaris Partners, Invus and UPMC Enterprises.

CNS disorders are a significant area of unmet medical need, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide who often face inadequate treatment options with limited effectiveness and significant side effects. Many of the conditions targeted by Noema Pharma have historically been difficult to treat due to their complex nature and the lack of effective therapies. By leveraging its diverse portfolio of neurological assets and innovative clinical pipeline, Noema Pharma is strongly positioned to address these debilitating disorders and provide much-needed hope and transformative solutions to patients living with these life-altering challenges. The Company’s portfolio includes four active Phase 2 trials, with key readouts from all studies anticipated in 2025.

Proceeds from the financing will drive the continued development of Noema Pharma’s clinical-stage assets, including its lead candidate basimglurant (NOE-101), a mGluR5 inhibitor currently in Phase 2 trials for severe pain in trigeminal neuralgia (TN) and seizures in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC). Additionally, the Company is advancing gemlapodect (NOE-105), a PDE10a inhibitor in Phase 2 for Tourette syndrome and childhood onset fluency disorder (COFD or stuttering), as well as NOE-115, a broad-spectrum monoamine modulator in a Phase 2 trial for vasomotor symptoms and additional symptoms of menopause.

Ilise Lombardo, MD, CEO of Noema Pharma, stated: “We are thrilled to welcome EQT Life Sciences as a lead investor and to have Felice join our Board. Their support and expertise will be invaluable as we progress our clinical programs and strive to make a meaningful impact on patients’ lives.” 

Felice Verduyn-van Weegen, Partner at EQT who is joining the Company’s Board of Directors, commented: “Noema Pharma’s innovative approach to CNS disorders aligns very well with our investment strategy and we are excited to support their late-stage clinical pipeline and transformative therapies. Having worked with Ilise Lombardo on a previous successful investment, her exceptional leadership as a repeat entrepreneur further reinforces our confidence in Noema’s potential to deliver meaningful impact to patients in need.”

Contact
EQT Press Office, [email protected]

This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com

https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-life-sciences-leads-series-b-extension-in-noema-pharma–raising-total-series-b-financing-to-chf-,c4080462

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BANGKOK, Dec. 11, 2024 — The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) today announced it has granted investment privileges to a 10.5 billion baht (ca. US$ 306 million) investment by UNIQUE Integrated Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Foxsemicon Integrated Technology Inc. (Fiti Group), to build a factory to produce for export high-precision machinery parts and equipment used in the semiconductor industry.

“This is an important investment by a company which is part of the Foxconn Technology Group and is a leading player in the global semiconductor wafer fab equipment supply chain,” said Mr. Narit Therdsteerasukdi, Secretary General of the BOI. “It comes at the perfect time as we engage in the drafting of Thailand’s National Semiconductor Strategy.”

Thailand’s newly appointed National Semiconductor and Advanced Electronics Policy Committee, or Semiconductor Board, approved last week at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the framework for the Strategy, and for the development of a skilled workforce to prepare for a new wave of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the sector that could bring at least 500 billion baht into the country by 2029 as per the Government’s target.

Fiti, a part of the Taipei-based Hon Hai Group, which is also known as Foxconn, has production sites in Miaoli County, Taiwan, in Kunshan, Jiangsu, and in Songjiang, Shanghai, in China, as well as service and sales offices in California and Texas, in the U.S.

The new Thai manufacturing facilities will be located in Amata City Chonburi Industrial Estate and Amata City Rayong Industrial Estate, located in Chonburi and Rayong provinces, respectively. The two provinces are part of Thailand’s hi-tech hub known as the Eastern Economic Corridor.

The high-precision machinery parts and equipment the factory will produce will include shields, chambers, high-purity valves, and sub-assembly modules, all essential elements in the manufacturing of the machinery used in the semiconductor production process (wafer fabrication).

The factory will employ more than 1,400 qualified Thai workers and source over a quarter of its raw materials domestically. The expected value of its annual exports will be more than 6 billion baht.

Applications for investment promotion in Thailand in the first nine months of 2024 increased 42% year-on-year in value to a combined 722.5 billion baht, the highest level since 2015, led by a significant afflux of FDI in large projects in target sectors including the electrical appliances and electronics (E&E), and data centers. During the period, the E&E sector led with 291 projects worth a combined 183.4 billion baht.

For more information, please contact:
Thailand Board of Investment
Tel. +66 (0) 2553 8111
Website: www.boi.go.th
YouTube: Think Asia, Invest Thailand

SOURCE Thailand Board of Investment (BOI)

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LAKE CHARLES, La., Dec. 10, 2024 — Wavegate Corporation, a pioneering developer of neuromodulation technology for chronic pain management, has secured a lead investor in their $26 million Series A funding round led by UCEA Capital Partners Ltd., a London-based investment firm. This financing will accelerate the development of Wavegate’s proprietary Ellipse^™ platform, featuring StimuLux^™ technology, designed to provide breakthrough therapeutic solutions for chronic pain patients.

Wavegate’s Ellipse^™ spinal cord stimulator uses optical reflectometry to provide closed-loop adaptive modulation, uniquely adjusting stimulation in real-time based on spinal cord movement. This technology, which received FDA Breakthrough Device designation, offers significant potential to improve the lives of chronic pain sufferers by maintaining consistent pain relief across a range of patient activities using either paresthesia-based or paresthesia-free neuromodulation. Wavegate also recently achieved successful first-in-human data, further validating the clinical promise of its Ellipse^™ platform.

“Securing this funding represents a pivotal moment for Wavegate as we continue to push the boundaries in neuromodulation technology,” said Dr. Erich Wolf, CEO of Wavegate Corporation. “UCEA’s investment validates the potential of our innovations and supports our vision of advancing effective, patient-centered pain management solutions.”

The investment by UCEA Capital Partners aligns with its strategic focus on supporting transformative healthcare technologies. “Wavegate’s approach to neuromodulation reflects exactly the type of high-impact, innovation-driven opportunity we seek to champion. We are thrilled to support their journey in addressing a critical area of unmet medical need,” noted Joao Teixeira, Chairman of UCEA Capital Partners Ltd.

The Series A funding will be instrumental in expanding Wavegate’s R&D efforts, clinical trials, and preparations for regulatory approvals, marking a significant step forward for the company as it progresses toward commercialization.

For more information on Wavegate Corporation, visit wavegate.us.

Media Contact:
Marla Miller, JD, LLM
Corporate Secretary
[email protected]
+1-337-419-1360

SOURCE Wavegate Corporation

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NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2024 — J.F. Lehman & Company (“JFLCO”), a leading middle-market private equity firm focused exclusively on the aerospace, defense, maritime, government and environmental sectors, today announced the successful closing of its latest flagship fund, JFL Equity Investors VI, L.P. and affiliated investments vehicles (“Fund VI”).  At $2.23 billion, the offering marks the largest in the firm’s 33-year history and was meaningfully oversubscribed relative to its $1.6 billion target.

Fund VI will enable JFLCO to continue to execute its long-standing investment strategy leveraging over three decades of specialized industry knowledge and demonstrated operational capabilities to help companies reach their full potential.  The new fund increases the firm’s total assets under management to $7 billion as of November 30, 2024.

“The highly successful outcome of this marketing effort reflects our demonstrated ability to source intrinsically valuable companies, drive tangible improvements across our portfolio and the substantial confidence placed in our team,” said Louis N. Mintz, Partner.  “We are determined to continue to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns as we continue to deploy and manage Fund VI.”

“We are grateful for the support from our longstanding partners, many of which endorsed our efforts early in the process with increased conviction,” added Karina Perelmuter, Managing Director, Investor Relations & Marketing.  “We are equally appreciative of the trust and confidence placed in our team by the many new partners backing our sector-focused strategy.”

UBS Securities LLC acted as placement agent for Fund VI and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP served as legal adviser.

About J.F. Lehman & Company, Inc.

Founded in 1992, J.F. Lehman & Company focuses exclusively on investing in the aerospace, defense, maritime, government and environmental industries. The firm has offices in New York and Washington, D.C.
http://www.jflpartners.com

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ABU DHABI, UAE, Dec. 10, 2024 — Abu Dhabi Finance Week (ADFW), the flagship event hosted by ADGM, continued into a second day with the 2024 edition of Asset Abu Dhabi. The forum, organised with theme partners ADCB, Mubadala and PGIM Global Asset Management, discussed topics such as investing in the next decade of technology, opportunities in Private Equity & Credit and investing in cities of the future. 

Asset Abu Dhabi gathered asset allocators and asset managers, investment bankers, venture capitalists, private equities, family offices and other institutional investors, which collectively manage over USD 42.5 trillion in assets, to share their perspectives and offer insights into some of the world’s biggest hedge funds.

Ray Dalio – Founder & CIO Mentor at Bridgewater Associates – delivered an insightful session on the Principles of a Changing World Order that set the tone for the discussions during the day. His thought-provoking keynote address delved into some of the most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the future is likely to be different to those in recent history.

With AUM levels in the asset management industry rising to almost USD120 trillion in 2023 and multi-trillion-dollar managers holding around 61% of the total industry assets, the session on The Market View of Trillion Dollar Asset Managers provided insights on the market view from the top with asset management experts Aleksandar Ivanovic – President of UBS Asset Management, David Hunt – President and CEO of PGIM and Bill Huffman – CEO at Nuveen.

Other prominent names in the financial investment space such as Robert Smith, Founder – Chairman & CEO at Vista Equity Partners and Aron Landy – CEO at Brevan Howard, also provided notable discussions and keynote speeches. Topics covered included an update on the falcon economy, how to spot and grow a world-class opportunity, the big picture of real estate and a brief guide on Abu Dhabi’s top sovereign funds.

Commenting on the event’s prominence, H.E. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of ADGM and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) said: “Convening some of the biggest names within the asset management sector, Asset Abu Dhabi is an unparalleled platform to share insights on and shape the future of this dynamic sector. Through this platform, we are highlighting the next frontier of technology and investment opportunities and providing critical perspectives on regional and global economic prospects that will transform the next decade of investments in an evolving world order. Asset Abu Dhabi underscores ADGM’s unwavering commitment to driving the growth of the Falcon Economy.”

14 Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) have been signed at ADFW so far. Some of the major ones signed by ADGM today included prominent names such as Istanbul Financial Centre, Beijing Financial Street Services Bureau and Polygon. Another agreement signed between Circle and Lulu Financial Holdings was also a highlight at the event. Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) signed MoUs with leading entities such as PGIM, EXIM Bank and MasterCard.

In parallel to Asset Abu Dhabi, ADFW celebrated 40 years of bilateral relations between the UAE and China with the inaugural special edition of the UAE-China Investment Forum in collaboration with HSBC. The event explored the opportunities for mutual trade and prosperity with some very special guests such as Carl Ge –Partner at Hillhouse Investment, Dr. Nasser Saidi – President at Nasser Saidi & Associates, Sean Ho – CIO at Triata, Chi-Man Kwan – Founder & CEO at Raffles Family Office and Casey Ge – Group VP and Chief Strategy Officer at WInd Information.

ADFW hosted several other special events on day two such as RESOLVE, the UBS Investor Forum, the International Family Office Congress and T.R.I. (Turnaround Restructuring & Insolvency) Summit, Spears Summit – Private Wealth Forum and the Future of Talent Summit.

ADFW’s event series continues for another two days with flagship events such as Fintech Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Sustainable Finance Forum (ADSFF) that will bring together the industry’s best to its international stage.

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SOURCE ADGM

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• Concentro unlocks tax credit transfers for mid-sized clean energy projects, enabling developers to easily monetize transferable tax credits without high transaction costs and complexity.
• They take a differentiated high-touch approach, managing the entire end-to-end process from running diligence to providing full-wrap insurance, making it effortless and seamless for parties to transact.
• The team has closed a variety of transactions, including transacting with a Fortune 50 all the way down to closing one of the smallest transactions ($99k!) in the industry.
• The platform also provides CFOs & Tax Directors of corporations as well as individuals with the ability to purchase fully vetted and insured tax credits, helping them reduce their tax bill.

NEW YORK, Dec. 10, 2024 — Concentro, the clean energy financing platform, has closed a seed round of $3m, in an oversubscribed deal led by firstminute Capital, with participation from Silence VC, LifeX, Plug & Play, & Avesta Fund. Other participants include existing investors J Ventures, Contour Venture Partners, & Dorm Room Fund as well as various angels and VC scout networks. This follows a pre-seed round last year led by J Ventures.

Concentro is the fully-integrated financing engine for the clean energy middle-market. Despite the hundreds of billions of dollars invested annually in clean energy, accessing funds and financing projects remains highly complex, especially for mid-sized developers and projects who often struggle to get projects across the finish line.

One great example of this problem applies to tax credits, which account for over 30% of the financing stack of clean energy projects in the US. While the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 allocated over $210 billion in tax credits to subsidize clean energy development in the US and unlocked transferability – allowing projects without sufficient tax liabilities to transfer tax credits to third parties – the “middle-market” of clean energy continues to struggle in leveraging this newly unlocked financing mechanism.

For example, a $1M Commercial & Industrial Solar project earning a $300,000 tax credit would find it difficult to transfer the tax credits. This is because typical “buyer tickets” start at $5M and tax credit insurance providers generally won’t cover projects smaller than this amount either. Additionally, the high transaction costs including legal and CPA all but ruin the economics of engaging in a transfer. As a result, only large developers are able to easily access the market, leaving smaller projects at a disadvantage.

This is hampering the US economy as well as efforts to fight climate change, given that these “middle-sized” (i.e., distributed generation) projects are typically located closer to where energy is being consumed, leading to a more efficient grid and avoiding (very long) interconnection queues that are slowing deployment. This is where Concentro can help. The Concentro platform takes a tailored approach, beyond providing a “marketplace”, to enable distributed generation companies to sell transferable tax credits, without the complexity and hassle of traditional tax equity financing structures. From the “buyer” perspective, it provides a “white glove” solution for US corporations to reduce their federal tax liability while accelerating renewable energy projects, making it also accessible for smaller corporations that lack the resources to navigate the opportunity.

Inigo Rengifo Melia, Co-Founder & CEO, says: “Today, there are billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines because many developers cannot access cost-effective financing. Lack of scale, high transaction costs as well as complexity to transact means that many developers find it hard to finance their projects, leaving a massive gap in the market for financing these projects. Concentro is leveraging technology to streamline the transaction and diligence process so that middle-market developers can finally access the financing they need to bring their projects to life.

Tao Mantaras, Co-Founder & COO, added: “The Inflation Reduction Act was supposed to provide all developers and their projects – large and small – with a more streamlined way to monetize their tax credits, but we feel more needs to be done to enable transferability for the middle-market. We’ve been busy closing transactions this year and our pipeline continues to grow so we feel we’ve hit a clear need in the market.”

Concentro was founded by Inigo & Tao, who met whilst at business school at Harvard. Both have previous founding experience as well as strong operational backgrounds, having worked at McKinsey, Goldman Sachs & KPMG. Concentro will use the funding to grow its team and expand its technology product enabling more transactions to close on its platform. Concentro is headquartered in New York, United States.

Sam Endacott, Partner at firstminute Capital, comments: “We’re incredibly excited about the recent regulatory shifts that have taken place in the clean energy tax credits market. The new rules enabling their transferability are primed to increase the market size of transactions to $40bn annually within the next 10 years in the US. Concentro – by being a trusted financial intermediary and software layer between developers and global corporates – is providing crucial infrastructure to unlock this investment and drive innovation in the renewables and decarbonisation financial markets.”

Companies interested in buying or selling tax credits can contact [email protected].

About Concentro
Concentro is a platform helping clean energy developers monetize tax credits through transferability, with a focus on DG assets. They take a differentiated high touch approach managing the entire end-to-end process from running diligence to providing full-wrap insurance, making it effortless for small-mid sized projects to transact. They have closed multiple transactions, have $300M+ in credits from 60+ developers and are backed by top-tier investors. To learn more, visit www.concentro.io.

About firstminute Capital
firstminute Capital is a $315m AUM venture fund, investing in seed stage tech companies. firstminute is sector agnostic and invests across the UK, Europe and the US. Backed by over 120 unicorn founders and founded by Brent Hoberman (founder of lastminute.com, made.com, Founders Forum) and Spencer Crawley (Goldman Sachs, DMC Partners) in 2017, firstminute has invested in over 100 companies. To learn more, visit www.firstminute.capital.

SOURCE Concentro, Inc.

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HiringBranch is accelerating AI innovation in the skills-based economy, giving candidates fairer access to opportunities with a new generation of assessments and fewer interviews.

MONTRÉAL, Dec. 10, 2024 — HiringBranch, a leading AI-powered soft skills assessment platform, announced today that it has raised CAD 5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by Crédit Mutuel Equity, with participation from Export Development Canada and Anges Québec.

The funds will fuel market penetration of the company’s innovative Soft Skill AI^™, using strategic integration partnerships and sales initiatives to North and Latin America, Asia and the UK. This new trajectory comes on the heels of 330% customer growth in the past two years.

HiringBranch is transforming the way enterprises and contact centers hire with its tailored conversational voice and chat assessment experience. This approach allows candidates to preview the job before getting the job while AI scores role-critical soft skills for the recruiter. 

“We want to unlock the power of soft skills in the workforce by measuring what used to be immeasurable,” said HiringBranch Co-Founder and CEO Stephane Rivard. “Our native AI technology provides unparalleled accuracy in soft skills evaluation, enabling organizations to leverage skills data for hiring, talent mobility and strategic decision-making. This isn’t a multiple-choice or personality test—it’s a precise measure of a candidate’s real abilities to do a job well, creating a fairer path to opportunity.”

The company recently announced a study demonstrating its proprietary dataset measures soft skills at 98% accuracy while the next best public LLM’s accuracy sits at 64%.

André Couillard, President at Procom and angel investor says, “For companies that hire in high volume, HiringBranch revolutionizes the recruitment process by replacing the interview stage. Companies see themselves speeding up the process, dramatically reducing costs and selecting candidates who perform better and stay on the job longer.”

By automating soft skills measurement, HiringBranch’s platform reduces the need for traditional interviews in high-volume hiring, which are often time-consuming and can introduce bias. Compared to human-based assessments, HiringBranch’s AI has shown greater fairness and has proven to select candidates who perform better on the job compared to those hired with traditional methods.

“We have seen firsthand HiringBranch using AI for good, eliminating bias, and alleviating hiring managers of manual processes, like interviews, to work on higher value tasks. This is the true value of AI when executed responsibly,” says Nina Ni, Associate at Crédit Mutuel Equity. “Our goal is to help HiringBranch continue improving the assessment market, enabling enterprises to make better hiring decisions in the process,” says Ludovic André, Managing Director at Crédit Mutuel Equity Canada.

“We are uniquely positioned to be a catalyst in the skills-first talent movement with our award-winning Soft Skills AI^™. The future of hiring starts with skills measurement, and we plan to be at the forefront of this paradigm shift as we scale,” said Rivard. 

About HiringBranch
Hiring assessments aren’t new. AI skills assessments are. HiringBranch uses native AI to measure soft skills from conversations. This unique open-ended approach is the next generation to legacy multiple-choice assessments – because human skills cannot be measured by A, B or C. Fortune 1000s and contact centers use HiringBranch to reduce interview time by over 80% while achieving mis-hire rates as low as 1%. Founded by Patricia Macleod and Stephane Rivard and headquartered in Canada, HiringBranch proudly serves high-volume hiring companies like Bell Canada.

HiringBranch is committed to operating fairly while fostering diversity and inclusion for all its customers globally through unwavering and unbiased technology.

Learn more at hiringbranch.com

About Crédit Mutuel Equity
Crédit Mutuel Equity is the Private Equity arm of Crédit Mutuel Alliance Fédérale and carries out venture capital, growth capital and buyout activities.

Crédit Mutuel Equity supports business leaders at all stages of their companies’ development, from seed phase to buyout, by providing them with the means and the time required to implement their transformation plan. Crédit Mutuel Equity brings together a network of over 350 business leaders and entrepreneurs who share similar beliefs and can benefit from one another’s experience, no matter the nature of their challenges. From its own funds (€4 billion), Crédit Mutuel Equity finances investments tailored to the time horizons and growth strategies of the companies, whether in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, or Canada.

For more information: www.creditmutuel-equity.eu

Media contact: [email protected]

SOURCE HiringBranch

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