Shaker International, a leading provider of predictive talent intelligence and assessment solutions, has merged with Montage, the single solution to engage, interview and hire better candidates, faster. The companies are based in Cleveland and Wisconsin respectively.

The new company will help its combined client base, which includes hundreds of leading global brands and 47 of the Fortune 100, transform talent acquisition by embedding predictive intelligence into automated hiring workflows that enable better candidate experiences and smarter hiring decisions for 100% of an organization’s hires.

The company will be led by Kurt Heikkinen from Montage as CEO and Brian Stern from Shaker International as President, and a leadership team comprising of executives from both companies. All employees and offices of the two companies are being retained, and the combined company will be co-headquartered in Cleveland, OH and Delafield, WI.

“Today jobs are changing faster than ever, forcing companies to find even more intelligent ways to assess candidates and improve internal mobility,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst. “This merger demonstrates how people analytics supported by AI-based tools for interview and assessment are now a huge growth industry.”

Josh Bersin

With a world-class team of industry leaders, IO psychologists, data scientists, software engineers and a global client success organization, the combined business will engage over 15 million candidates and enable over 1 million hires in more than 20 languages in 200 countries and territories this year. The new organization’s client base includes industry leaders such as Allstate, Bank of America, CVS, Humana, and Procter & Gamble.

“Market dynamics are transforming the way organizations do business. Finding, engaging and retaining the right people is a board-level imperative and talent acquisition is at the center of this transformation,” said Heikkinen. “We’ve been able to deliver innovation and improved business outcomes with each of our respective clients, but now together, we will be delivering the experience the modern candidate and the future of all workers demand—in a manner that informs and accelerates smarter hiring decisions.”

Shaker International received a growth investment in 2017 from The Riverside Company, a global private equity firm investing in high-growth businesses. Riverside facilitated and financed this merger and is eager to continue supporting the combined business and provide access to additional resources to fuel growth, innovation, enhanced client support and market expansion.

Lightning Partners acted as exclusive financial and strategic advisor to Montage on the transaction.

“Montage and Shaker International share a common vision and heritage for creating candidate-centric and outcome-driven solutions,” said Stern. “By joining teams, we’re bringing together world-class expertise in SaaS, AI and predictive analytics to help clients transform talent acquisition operations to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of their internal business stakeholders.”

To learn more about the merger of Shaker International and Montage, please visit: shakermontagemerger.com.