Jobs created with £500k investment at Sunderland recruitment tech firm

A recruitment technology business in Sunderland is doubling in size with a £500k investment from the North East Venture Fund.

Technically Compatible, which enables recruiters to test the skills of IT professionals and hire the right people, will use the funding to create 10 jobs.

Based at the Sunderland Software Centre, the firm has developed an online assessment platform that allows businesses to reduce the risk of costly appointment failures by checking the abilities of developers and IT staff.

For the North East Venture Fund, the investment is its first in Sunderland.

Technically Compatible was founded in 2014. The company now has customers in more than 40 countries, with public sector clients including NHS Digital and HM Land Registry, and blue chip customers like Next, Sage and KPMG.

The firm raised £400k in 2016 to develop its platform, and the latest investment will enable it to build its management team and step up sales and marketing activity.

Technically Compatible CEO Mike Rohan said: “The investment will help us scale our operation and expand our engineering, customer success and marketing functions to keep up with demand. We aim to grow by 150% over the coming year.

“We look forward to working with the team at Mercia and the North East Venture Fund to execute our plan and create more high-value tech jobs in our home town of Sunderland.”

The North East Venture Fund is run by Mercia Fund Managers.

Ian Wilson, who leads Mercia’s North East team, commented: “Developers are in high demand but it is notoriously difficult to ensure that candidates have the right skills for the job, so companies often make poor hiring decisions.

“Technically Compatible not only allows employers to check candidates’ technical abilities but also carry out personality and psychometric testing.”

He added: “The funding will allow it to strengthen its team and move on to the next stage of its development.”

North East Fund chief exec Andrew Mitchell said: “Technically Compatible is the first Sunderland investment for the North East Venture Fund, and we are proud to support the development of this company in order to help it meet the market demand.”

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