JIBE Secures $875,000 in Seed Funding Led by Polaris Venture Partners

NEW YORK, March 22 /PRNewswire/ -- JIBE Inc., the first who you know job search site, raised $875,000 in seed capital funding led by Polaris Venture Partners. Now in private beta, the new funding will enable the company to further develop its platform, fueling sales, marketing, and partnership programs in the highly dynamic online employment market.

Designed to bring the power of social networking to the online career search, JIBE integrates Facebook Connect and LinkedIn to enable employers and applicants to leverage the overlap of their social graphs.  From previous co-workers to friends who work with a specific company, JIBE recognizes matches between networks as they apply to a job opportunity.

JIBE empowers employers to efficiently search and evaluate relevant candidates who are connected to other employees in their company.  By creating a referral-based recruitment process, JIBE helps ensure a more satisfied employer, as well as the new employee.  JIBE's "employment networking platform" gives applicants benefits that no other job site provides, including the relevancy of job postings to their social connections and real-time status updates about their applications. This level of transparency and feedback gives job seekers the insight needed to get hired for the right job.

Posting jobs and browsing JIBE's job database are free for employers and applicants. On JIBE, employers only pay when they want to retrieve contact information for candidates who meet both their qualifications for a trusted reference, as well as relevant experience.  

The JIBE team includes CEO and Founder, Joseph Essenfeld, who was previously COO for late-night cookie delivery company, Insomnia Cookies, Peter Margulies, former Co-Founder of BtownMenus.com, an online menu guide and food ordering site and Lead Developer, Toby Matejovsky.

"What is really exciting about JIBE is the innovative platform the company has built that leverages the existing social networks in the creation of a more efficient process for job seekers and employers to connect.  Additionally, JIBE's business model has already proven that better qualified applicants will pay to apply for higher quality jobs, and the 'pay for performance model' for employers creates an ROI that makes much more sense than paying for listings," according to Peter Flint, General Partner of Polaris Venture Partners.

Initially, JIBE will focus on entry-level professional positions located east of the Mississippi. 

In addition to Polaris, multiple Angel Investors participated in this round of funding, including Jason Calacanis, Ken and Ben Lerer of Lerer Media Ventures, Josh and Jared Kushner of Launch Capital and Zelkova Ventures.

About Polaris Venture Partners

Founded in 1996, Polaris Venture Partners is a partnership of experienced investors, operating executives and entrepreneurs. The firm's mission is to identify and invest in seed, first round, and early stage technology and life science businesses with exceptional promise and assist them to grow into sustainable, market-leading companies. Polaris invests in businesses across a number of markets, including software, digital media, consumer, Ener-Tech and life sciences. Polaris is based in Boston, with offices in San Francisco and Seattle, with assets over $3 billion under management, and current investments in more than 115 companies. www.polarisventures.com.

SOURCE JIBE Inc.