Nigerian employer-employee matchmaking startup PushCV is in the process of raising a funding round that will see it accelerate user acquisition and expand its services to Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
Launched in March 2013 as an automatic CV-sending service, PushCV eventually pivoted into matching candidates with open jobs, after taking them through various employability processes.
“When we were a CV-sending service, we discovered that out of many applications we had made, only a little fraction got call backs for interviews and the jobs, leading us to believe that there was a dearth of actually employable graduates,” PushCV co-founder and head of operations Odunayo Eweniyi told Disrupt Africa.
“It wasn’t enough for employers to get a barrage of CVs after placing their vacancies on job boards, because progress was not being made doing it that way. So we came up with a way for recruiters and employers to get only a few prescreened and very qualified candidates who are specifically tailored to their job descriptions, for faster recruitment.”
Officially relaunching in October of last year, the startup launched its Elite Employee Quest – where it prescreened around one million Nigerian jobseekers – and the PushCV RequestCV, a service that immediately matches qualified job seekers to employers, helping recruiters avoid junk and irrelevant CVs.
“PushCV is the largest pool of fully tested/pre-screened candidates in Africa. We provide only the best candidates for top employers and recruitment agencies,” said Eweniyi.
“To do this, we provide a range of value added services that help our candidates be the best and stand out in the labor market; and when these job vacancies come to us, we use our powerful search algorithm to find an average of 10 candidates per vacancy.”
It certainly seems to have proven attractive. The startup has close to one million users, and revenues are rising. PushCV makes money from value-added paid services such as the PushCV Academy, which has an array of basic and advanced level skill trainings with certificates to prepare candidates for industry certifications and they equip them with in demand industry skills.
It also runs a CV rewriting and creation service. “We help candidates rewrite their CV to acceptable industry standards; and for fresh graduates, we help them create acceptable, professional CVs,” said Eweniyi.
Funded by LeadPath Nigeria and both local and international investors, PushCV is in the process of raising another round in order to grow its business and expand to new markets.
“We currently operate in the Nigerian employment and labor market, but we certainly have plans to expand to other African countries in the near future,” said Eweniyi.
