LONDON, Oct. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — SHL, the global leader in talent innovation, announces an agreement to acquire pioneering talent evaluation leader Aspiring Minds and with it, wider availability of a globally proven portfolio of innovative products.
Since its founding 11 years ago, Aspiring Minds has grown rapidly, counting more than 100 of the global Fortune 500 among its more than 3,000 customers worldwide. Its groundbreaking products are driven by industry-leading AI-powered talent assessment and interviewing solutions, spanning a portfolio that includes coding, language, video interview and skills tests.
These capabilities are a perfect fit alongside SHL’s strong foundation of innovation, which includes 10 years of machine learning technology combined with rigorous science and proprietary datasets that enable SHL customers to hire and develop the right talent with far greater accuracy and diversity.
Global businesses are adapting to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where technology becomes a critical enabler of business outcomes. SHL solutions can predict and map the necessary shift in talent priorities to drive positive outcomes in an environment where research shows that a scarcity of digital talent is the primary barrier to executing true digital transformation.
“We see a noticeable gap between those who seek to transform their organizations with a digital strategy, and those who actually have the talent to do so,” says Andy Bradshaw, CEO of SHL. “This acquisition infuses Aspiring Minds’ advanced AI technology throughout SHL’s portfolio at a platform level and will leverage our rigorous science to enable the technical, emerging and leadership talent required for our 10,000-plus customers to succeed in the digital era.”
“Aspiring Minds has scaled rapidly, working with corporations across the US, China, India, Philippines and the Middle East. We are excited about the opportunity to be part of SHL and take our combined products and solutions to thousands of corporations across the globe,” says Himanshu Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Aspiring Minds. “Our focus is on real-world applications of AI and we see an opportunity for unprecedented innovation in joining SHL,” adds Varun Aggarwal, co-founder and CTO of Aspiring Minds.
SHL has launched several new solutions since being re-established as a standalone business in April 2018, including Verify Interactive, recently named by HR Executive as one of 2019’s top HR products. This strategic transaction signals yet another proof point of the company’s growth trajectory, according to Bradshaw. “We’ll continue to ramp our investment, both organically and inorganically, in companies and capabilities that lead to better talent outcomes for our customers globally,” he says.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close in November, have not been disclosed.
About SHL
SHL exists to help you win. At a time of unprecedented change, we provide deep people insights to predict and drive performance.
Our world-class talent solutions empower leaders and their teams to make unbiased decisions throughout the employee journey. With 40+ years of talent expertise, cutting-edge assessment science and more than 45 billion data points, we have an unparalleled view of the workforce. SHL partners with organizations of all sizes – from start-ups to multinational firms – worldwide to deliver proven business results from people investments. www.shl.com
About Aspiring Minds
Aspiring Minds is a global leader in assessments and credentialing, dramatically improving recruitment & workforce efficiency. Powered by AI, psychometry and science over 3,000 companies and institutions worldwide rely on our validated assessments to help them recruit the right people, develop requisite skills benchmarks and assess workforce health. Aspiring Minds’ flagship product AMCAT is the world’s most popular employability test helping over three million candidates find the ‘right’ jobs every year. Using proprietary adaptive assessment technology and machine learning algorithms, AMCAT provides standardized and reliable measurements of language, cognitive, behavioral skills across a wide range of functional skills for a wide variety of jobs. Visit www.aspiringminds.com