TNF Ventures leads $560k investment in start-up Tribehired

The investment was made through the Technology Incubation Scheme under Singapore's National Research Foundation. The round was supported by Singapore angel investors Ben Ball and Ben Chew.

Tribehired was a participant in JFDI.Asia's JFDI-Innov8 2012 accelerator program. It also received pre-seed funding from the Malaysian government-backed Cradle Fund.

The investment will be used to build Tribehired's team to expand both the number of job candidates on its system and the range of businesses using the service.

"Recruitment is an evergreen industry but it is also ripe for disruption," said Shirley Wong, managing partner at TNF Ventures in a statment. "There are others in this space but Tribehired's team convinced us that they really understand the psychology of social networks and job seekers better than anyone else."

Tribehired claims to be unique in that it incentivizes ordinary people to recommend job opportunities at companies where their friends would fit. By giving employers a window into social networks, the company says it can reduce hiring costs and time-to-hire. The service currently covers Singapore and Malaysia.

"This is a great deal for those directly involved but it also shows the benefits when Malaysia and Singapore collaborate to support innovative start-ups," said Hugh Mason, co-founder and CEO at JFDI.Asia. "Tribehired's talent was first spotted by a Malaysian government fund and, with support from both private and public investors in Singapore, the business has been able to exploit opportunities in both markets to grow much faster than it would have done in either alone."

In total, 11 start-ups were inducted into the inaugural JFDI-SingTel Innov8 Bootcamp accelerator program in early 2012. This group also included travel website Flocations, which recieved $570,000 in a round of funding led by TNF last December. 

 

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Technology
• TMT
• Singapore
• Malaysia
• SingTel Innov8
• TNF Ventures
• JFDI.Asia