Manchester-based psychometric assessment provider Arctic Shores has secured a £5.75m Series B investment to accelerate the development of its soft-skills assessment and international expansion in Europe.
Manchester’s Praetura Ventures, alongside London-based private equity firm, Calculus Capital, led the transaction with participation from existing shareholder Beringea.
Founded in 2014 by Robert Newry and Safe Hammad, Arctic Shores has become a market leader in hiring for potential and soft skills at a time when organisations across the world are facing an acute skills crisis, increasing digitisation of work, and the need to adapt rapidly. Its customers include TalkTalk, Siemens and Vitality.
Robert Newry, co-founder and CEO of Arctic Shores, said: “This next phase of investment will help Arctic Shores to realise its mission to help companies see more in people and transform recruitment so that potential will count as much as hard skills or experience. Companies like PwC, Siemens and Airbus are leading the way into the future by recognising that the CV is no longer fit for purpose and adopting a soft skills centric hiring approach.”
Helen Verwoert, operational partner at Praetura Ventures and ex-chief people officer at Dr Martens, and Alexander Crawford, co-head of Investments, at Calculus Capital, will join the board as part of the deal.
Verwoert added: “The recruitment landscape is changing rapidly. The challenges employers face today are fundamentally different to those we’ve seen in previous years, and new challenges need new tools. As we scaled the team at Dr Martens, we constantly looked for new and innovative ways to help us develop our edge in the ‘race for talent’. Arctic Shores’ platform gives its clients that edge by broadening the talent pool, hiring based on real skills and removing bias from outdated practices.”
The investment will accelerate the adoption of Arctic Shores’ new self-configure platform, and with the increasing demand for soft skills assessments, the company is launching an update to assessing workplace intelligence. Following growth in Germany including major contracts with Airbus Siemens and Schneider Electric, the investment will further Arctic Shores’ European presence and market capability to accelerate in this region.
