New York-based Greycroft and Westwood-based Alpha Edison led the round with participation from Fika Ventures and Act One Ventures, both based in Westwood.
The company was co-founded in 2020 by Adam Miller, who began Santa Monica-based Cornerstone OnDemand Inc., a human resources management software company, in 1999. In August, Santa Monica-based private equity firm Clearlake Capital Group paid $5.2 billion for Miller’s company.
Another big-name backer in Clovers is Jason Nazar, who founded salary comparison website Comparably Inc. of Santa Monica.
The idea behind Clovers has some roots in the pandemic when the Black Lives Matter movement to combat racism and police brutality gained traction in America, said Chief Executive Doug Leonard.
He cited statistics from late 2019 to earlier this year in which major corporations on Standard & Poor’s 500 index tripled their hiring of chief diversity officers, according to a review by New York-based management consulting firm Russell Reynolds Associates Inc.
The Clovers-designed HR software is built around conversational artificial intelligence and works alongside online video software Zoom.
“The software flags, for instance, an inappropriate question,” said Leonard. “It’ll give you actually the right questions to ask in an interview. … Now you’re really looking at what the competencies and skills are that are needed for the job.”
The job candidate only sees Zoom during the interview and not the flags on the hiring manager’s computer screen.
Competitors include New York-based BrightHire Inc.; Indianapolis-based Luma Software Inc., doing business as LumaTeams; and South Jordan, Utah-based HireVue Inc.
Clovers’ software began rolling out this past summer and has already garnered traction from clients with upward of 2,000 employees.