[Funding alert] Sense raises $50M led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2

Sense, the San Francisco headquartered HR tech startup, which has an office in Bengaluru, has raised $50 million in a Series D round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.

Until now, Sense has secured $90 million in funding with other investors being Accel, Avataar Venture Partners, GV, Khosla Ventures, and Signia Ventures.

Founded in 2015 by Anil Dharni, Ram Gudavalli, Pankaj Jindal, and Alex Rosen, Sense will use this funding round to drive global expansion and product development.

Sense will also ramp up its go-to-market strategy targeting the sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and retail. In addition, it aims to invest in international expansion especially focused on high-growth regions like Western Europe.

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According to the startup, in today's hyper-competitive hiring market where blue and grey-collar workers are leaving jobs in record numbers, companies cannot accomplish their hiring goals without targeted investment in automation and AI. This tailwind has helped Sense gain traction across more than 600 customers, it noted.

“Sense’s founding mission to equip companies to engage with best-fit talent both quickly and effectively is more important than ever. Our work with hundreds of companies in the past year alone has enabled them to build great teams and compete for talent amid the pandemic,” Anil Dharni, CEO of Sense, said in a statement.

The startup noted that it has achieved a record year of business growth, more than doubling company revenue, doubling employee headcount, boosting enterprise deal size by 70%, and achieving a net retention rate exceeding 130%.

Munish Varma, Managing Partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers, said, "We have tracked Sense's growth and product innovation amid one of the most transformative years in the talent landscape. Powered by AI, the Sense platform aims to help companies manage the entire talent lifecycle which is of utmost importance in today’s competitive environment.” 

Sense claimed that through its personalised approach of AI, their customers experience on average: a 263% increase in candidates screened compared to a manual approach, reduced time to fill by 30-81%, and up to 800 hours of recruiter time saved.