SilkRoad Technologies raises $54 million to take on Taleo, Kenexa, Authoria and all the rest

Big news today in the HCM space. I saw this today on VentureBeat:

SilkRoad technology, a startup that delivers software-as-a-service to help companies manage their employees, has closed a $54 million road of equity capital. The funding is led by new investor Foundation Capital, with participation from existing backers Azure Capital Partners, SilkRoad Equity and several individual investors.

The Winston-Salem, NC-based startup has more than 700 customers for a suite of products that includes recruitment software OpenHire, employee performance management tool Wingspan and Eprise, which provides employee intranets and content management.

SilkRoad Equity – the venture fund of Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, the CEO of Silk Road also released a press release about Silk Road Technology’s $54 million round

Why is this big news? Well this affects video interview companies, talent management companies and the whole realm of service providers in the HCM space. SilkRoad Technologies although out there has never been held in the same regard as Taleo, Vurv (now owned by Taleo), Authoria, Kenexa and others. They are the dark horse in the race I suppose. With $54m in the bank, SilkRoad can do a lot of big things in the industry and go after any customer, partner or acquisition target they want to. Best of all, they can shake things up by giving the incumbents a real run for their money which many people say is sorely needed. More competition is a good thing in enterprise technology. More competition leads to innovation and helps fulfill the dreams of many analysts and investors in saying that HCM/ERP software is the fastest growing market in technology.

Congratulations to Flip and his team. We at HireVue are excited to hear more about what is coming from SilkRoad over the next 12-24 months.

Cheers

Mark Newman