Sova Assessment Limited, the HR Tech enterprise talent assessment software platform, has announced it has raised $9m in a growth funding round from existing investor, Octopus Ventures. 

Based in London, with international offices in Dubai and Melbourne and a global network of strategic partners, Sova is an end-to-end talent assessment SaaS platform. Its enterprise platform technology answers the challenge organisations are facing around improving accuracy, efficiency and fairness of decision-making at scale. 

As organisations and workplaces evolve through the pandemic, they need to adopt a more strategic, joined-up talent strategy to build closer links between talent acquisition and internal talent, to hire the right people but also upskill and develop the existing workforce. All too often, the systems and processes which underpin talent management are disjointed and fragmented, leading to poor quality insight and decision-making. Sova is turning the assessment industry on its head, moving from narrow off-the-shelf point solutions to a business-critical enterprise HR tech solution providing talent intelligence at scale.

The fully configurable platform is powered by Sova’s industry-leading assessment tools, workflow management and powerful analytics, all in one fully integrated system. Organisations can make fast, fair and data-driven decisions at every stage of the employee journey from recruitment, internal talent identification programmes, leadership development and beyond. 

The additional funding from Octopus Ventures signals its continued confidence in Sova, having witnessed the rapid growth of the business over the last 12 months and since the business secured $4 million of growth funding from Octopus Ventures in November 2020. The funding will be used to accelerate growth via geographical expansion as well as investing in further developing and marketing Sova’s leading assessment platform, delivering real-time talent intelligence throughout the employee lifecycle.

Alan Bourne, CEO of Sova Assessment Limited, said “I am delighted to continue our journey with Octopus Ventures which from the outset, shared our vision to help customers digitise and make fairer, more effective decisions about talent. At a time when organisations are facing significant talent challenges, whether that’s COVID, skills shortages, the impact of technology on jobs or upskilling the workforce, it’s clear that legacy approaches are no longer fit for purpose. Our enterprise assessment platform helps customers make better decisions about talent without compromising fairness, efficiency or candidate experience.”

Paul Davidson, Principal at Octopus Ventures, said “With their deep expertise and experience, we have been impressed by how well Alan and his team have helped customers streamline and enhance their talent assessment processes. Sova is leading and transforming the assessment industry, meeting increased global demand for a more integrated, strategic approach to assessing talent that is even more relevant now than it was when we first invested. We first provided growth funding to Sova in November 2020 and due to the rapid growth of the business, we are excited about further supporting Sova.”

Sova has over 120 enterprise-level customers and has assessed over 2.5 million candidates across a number of different sectors in over 20 countries. Customers include Vodafone, John Lewis Partnership, TUI Travel, NatWest, National Australia Bank, Northern Trust, Generali, Police Now, Pfizer and Deloitte.