Another CareerBeacon Acquisition
MONCTON – CareerBeacon is continuing a spree of growth with the acquisition of an out-of-province HR tech firm with software that will spruce up CareerBeacon’s proprietary job board.
CareerBeacon announced on Oct. 12 that it has bought Ruutly, a company whose mandate is helping employers promote jobs through interactive postings.
CareerBeacon is Atlantic Canada’s largest online job board. It’s owned by Moncton-based Alongside, which purchased CareerBeacon in late 2021.
Alongside’s CEO and co-founder, Yves Boudreau, said Ruutly is his second acquisition and “hopefully, not the last one.”
“I’m actually starting to enjoy the process of acquisitions – not to say I’m good at it – but I’m starting to understand it a lot more,“ he said.
Boudreau demurred when asked about the cost of purchasing Ruutly but told Huddle the acquisition was a “cash-and-stock-option deal.”
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Ruutly, headquartered in Toronto, transforms text-only job requisitions into more visually attractive, interactive proprietary products called ‘Ruuts.’
It offers a subscription-based service ranging from $399 to $8,000 per month and has worked with major firms that include Siemens, GlaxoSmithKline, and Indigo. The company has more than 10,000 job postings active at any given time and posts in more than 35 countries and 12 languages.
Ruutly claims its tech can help job posting view rates by more than 50 percent for clients and more than double apply click rates. CareerBeacon will be incorporating Ruutly’s technology into its own platform.
Boudreau said Ruutly’s tech will be offered immediately as a separate product. He said there are plans in the works to integrate it more deeply into CareerBeacon’s core offerings.
He added that Ruutly’s integration is part of a process that will culminate in a big announcement from CareerBeacon in November, relating to the “next iteration of CareerBeacon.”
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While Ruutly’s interactive job requisition generation will be an asset, Boudreau stressed the personnel and expertise CareerBeacon is integrating into its own staff were the real draw.
This acquisition includes the hiring of Ruutly Founder and CEO Ryan Porter – a move that bolsters CareerBeacon’s team to 19 and Alongside’s to 21.
“Ryan was the first person who reached out once I knew CareerBeacon was going to be a reality and acquiring it was feasible,” said Boudreau. “I knew Ryan for about four years, and we were introduced through a mutual friend – an industry person.”
Porter, who Boudreau bills as a critical part of the team, has been on Boudreau’s professional radar for some time.
“As much as I love the tech behind the business, it wouldn’t have mattered what company he was running, I’d have found a way to have him join the team,” Boudreau said.
Boudreau plans to hire several more people before the end of the year, noting CareerBeacon has been bolstering its staff every month since the start of the year.
In February, Alongside announced an $8-million round of funding intended to augment its own HR technology.
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When asked if that fundraising was a driving force behind the Ruutly purchase, Boudreau said that funding went toward Alongside’s purchase of CareerBeacon.
“It’s hard to pinpoint if it was revenue from CareerBeacon or the funding round (that funded the Ruutly purchase), but it was always our intention to acquire Ruutly,” Boudreau said, adding that he was threshing out acquisition plans with Ruutly last December.
Boudreau said the process is “pretty strenuous” and time-intensive. From start to end, it took about eight months for Alongside to acquire CareerBeacon.
“We needed a breather to jump back into acquisition conversations,” he said.
Sam Macdonald is a Huddle reporter in Moncton. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].