Simply Hired, a vertical search engine for jobs has raised $13.5 million in new funding from News Corporation’s Fox Interactive Media and Foundation Capital. The latest round of financing brings the company’s total funding to $17.7 million. Foundation Capital and Fox Interactive Media will be getting board seats as well. I am told Ross Levinsohn of FIM is going to sit on the board of the company. Simply Hired and Indeed are two major employment related vertical search engines. Google has also made a cautious move in the “jobs” space as well.
Back in December 2005, I had reported that Simply Hired was in the process of raising fresh money including an investment from Foundation Capital. Previous investors in Simply Hired include Ron Conway and Kanwal Rekhi, well known angels in Silicon Valley. Simply Hired is a Business 2.0 Next Net company (Full List Here), and had burst on the scene with its Simply Fired contest. (Disclosure: I was one of the judges for the Simply Fired contest.)
vertical search just might mean the death of giants like Google (at least in overall search share)
I would have thought by now that Yahoo and Hotjobs would have realized job search was more important than a job directory. Fox gets it. Just wait until Fox/Newscorp is a larger portal than Yahoo! That’s my five year prediction.
The other interesting subtext to this story is that Murdoch is now willing to make minority investments in companies. That’s something new… his m.o. has always been to take controlling interest.
Fox Interactive Media and The New York Times deserve a round of applause for their foresight in investing in job aggregators. Job search, be it in a contracting or expanding economy, is ever evolving and dynamic.
Jeff Tokarz
Founder & CEO
Just-Posted Inc.
Tel.: (585) 315-2027
Email: JTokarz@Just-Posted.com
URL: http://www.Just-Posted.com