Chicago-based Yello, a company that develops recruitment software and talent relationship management tools, today announced it has secured a $5 million Series B.
Yello CEO and co-founder Jason Weingarten said the funding will primarily be used to scale operations.
“We believe we’ve got the premier product in the space and a really strong sales process,” he said. “The round will help us build additional products on top of our platform and make sure we’re spreading the wealth and focusing on new portions of the market.”
The round was led by Argentum Group, a growth-stage private equity and venture capital firm based in New York. Chicago’s First Analysis, which led the company’s $6 million Series A last year, also participated.
Yello also announced that Argentum's co-founder and managing partner Walter Barandiaran has joined Yello’s Board of Directors.
Weingarten’s team now stands at 70 — a headcount that’s doubled in the past six months alone.
“The team and culture that we’ve created here at Yello is a really innovative and hardworking group,” Weingarten said. “Every time we get a new customer or a big fundraising round, it validates everything that they’ve worked so hard for. I’m very proud of the team, and we’re exciting to be able to share these wins with them.”
Yello was founded in 2008, when its recruitment solutions primarily focused on college campuses the nation over. Since then, the company has expanded its recruitment expertise to enterprise and SMB.
From Yello’s vantage point, Weingarten has seen Chicago’s tech scene develop to its current state — a coming-of-age story he said he’s proud to have witnessed.
“It is very exciting and refreshing to see Chicago’s success — especially over the last 24 months,” Weingarten said. “We’ve been in the space for a long time, especially in Chicago, and for us to be one of those companies that’s a big up-and-comer is extremely rewarding.”
Weingarten said that Yello does its best to return the love to the city it calls home, whether that’s through providing employment, hosting community events, or warming up VCs from the coasts to the idea of investing in the Midwest.
“We’re happy to be part of the community,” he said. “We’re really confident in what we’re doing — and always looking for a few good people to join us.”
