Innovative Virtual Bench Solution for Enterprise Talent, Bench Talent Cloud, Announces Merger and Growth Funding

• HR-tech startup, Fulcrum, has agreed to merge with Open Assembly's Future of Work consulting arm to create Bench Talent Cloud.
• Together, they are responsible for facilitating thousands of flexible work engagements for the Global 2000.
• The combined offering enables technology teams and service providers to scale Future of Work models with proven technology and guidance.
• This growth is backed by existing investors, Communitas Capital and Greatscale Ventures, as well as new investors coming on board.

SAN DIEGO and LONDON, April 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Fulcrum, a leading enterprise talent marketplace aggregator, has merged with Open Assembly's Gateway division, a leading freelance talent advisory practice. The companies combine to form Bench Talent Cloud offering enterprises their own Virtual Bench filled with technology and innovation talent, curated just for them. Trevor Foster, Co-founder of Fulcrum, will serve as CEO of Bench, while Barry Matthews, CEO of Open Assembly, joins as President.

"After years at the forefront of bringing innovative talent solutions to global enterprises, our merger with Open Assembly's Gateway catapults Fulcrum to new heights as Bench Talent Cloud," said Foster, CEO of Bench Talent Cloud. "Our combined offering gives our clients the experience of having a Virtual Bench of talent, at a fraction of the cost and time when compared to growing permanent headcount or using traditional staffing agencies. We call this an Enterprise Talent Cloud and it's the result of years of on-the-ground learning within some of the biggest organizations on Earth."

"In a rapidly evolving tech landscape, agility is key. Finding top talent takes time – often months for emerging tech roles, complicated by inconsistent demand and the swift obsolescence of skills." Added Matthews, President of Bench Talent Cloud. "Companies must proactively build relationships with talent well before their skills are needed. This merger equips companies to navigate these challenges with unprecedented agility."

With a focus on Enterprise Technology Teams and Technology Service Providers, Bench Talent Cloud partners with its clients to establish vibrant, technology-enabled communities of quality talent that can be deployed on a moment's notice. Using its Enterprise Talent Cloud along with proven enablement and advisory services, Bench combines known talent (encompassing employees, alumni, and previous contractors) with new talent from online marketplaces, staffing agencies, or direct recruits into a single, cohesive Virtual Bench.

As part of this transaction, Bench Talent Cloud has secured strategic growth investment led by Communitas Capital and Greatscale Ventures with participation from additional institutional investors. "Turning the fragmented market for Open Talent providers into something enterprise companies can actually use has been an opportunity we've been excited about for some time. Bench Talent Cloud is poised to do just that. Their combined product suite provides large enterprises a solution to one of their biggest problems – how to manage and hire flexible talent." Doug Atkin, Managing Partner at Communitas Capital, shared. "We couldn't be more pleased with the opportunity created by combining Fulcrum with Open Assembly. The benefits for companies and Access to Opportunity benefits for professionals are astounding," added Tyson McDowell, Managing Partner at Greatscale Ventures.

As part of the merger and growth investment, Doug Atkin of Communitas Capital, Tyson McDowell of Greatscale Ventures, and Jeff Klenner, longtime independent board director at Fulcrum, will join Barry Matthews and Trevor Foster from the management team to form the Board of Directors for Bench Talent Cloud.

The original Open Assembly community and brand will remain distinct from Bench Talent Cloud. It will continue its mission to develop a common process and common language for Open Talent. Under the leadership of its Founder and Chairman, John Winsor – co-author of the best-selling book "Open Talent: Leveraging the Global Workforce to Solve Your Biggest Challenges" published by Harvard Business Review – the company will continue offering its renowned thought leadership, training programs, and a certification program for talent platforms.

About Fulcrum

Hiring in the enterprise is slow and painful – Fulcrum makes it delightful. Fulcrum's enterprise SaaS platform enables companies to compare and hire external talent in one easy-to-use solution. Fulcrum has defined a new category – Enterprise Talent Marketplace SaaS – that makes hiring 80% faster and 50% cheaper, with limited change management. Enterprise companies spend billions of dollars a year on talent using antiquated systems that exist in silos – Fulcrum sits on top of these systems to create a single, coherent workflow for hiring teams. As a result, hiring managers have faster access to better talent, while reducing administrative workload. For more information visit www.fulcrumworks.com.

About Open Assembly

Open Assembly co-creates the future of work with organizations, platforms, and people by providing content, community, and strategic advising services. Open Assembly leverages research and insights from its academic partner, the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH), to inform and inspire new ways of working using open models. To learn more, visit www.open-assembly.com and johnwinsor.com.

About Communitas Capital

Communitas Capital is a New York based venture capital firm founded by financial industry veterans Doug Atkin, former CEO of Instinet, Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters, and Duncan Niederauer, former CEO of The New York Stock Exchange. Communitas invests in early-stage businesses in financial technology and other verticals - such as real estate tech, insurance, alternative data, blockchain and digital marketplaces. To learn more visit http://www.communitascapital.com.

About Greatscale Ventures

Greatscale Ventures launches early stage tech companies from pre-founding to initial revenue. We focus on business and product models that are driven to success thanks to their authenticity in generating sustainable value for all stakeholders involved, and invest in founders with strong access to market and a keen sense of product/market fit. The portfolio includes companies focused on Fitness and Nutrition, Professional Development, Population Health Management, to name a few. To learn more, visit www.greatscale.ventures.

Contact

Trevor Foster
[email protected] 
(731) 394-3356

Barry Matthews 
[email protected] 
+44 788.195.4710

SOURCE Bench Talent Cloud, Inc.