Fama Raises $10 Million to Help Employers Screen Job Seekers’ Social Media Posts
Molly Wright is an intern for dot.LA. She previously edited the London School of Economics' student newspaper in the United Kingdom, interned for The Hollywood Reporter and was the blogging editor for UCLA's Daily Bruin.
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Fama, a Los Angeles-based social media screening startup that allows companies to examine a job applicant’s online presence, has raised $10 million in new funding.
The Series B funding round was led by Austin, Texas-based venture capital firm Silverton Partners, with participation from Santa Monica-based Crosscut Ventures and Beverly Hills-based Navigate VC, among other VCs. Fama plans to use the funding to scale up its go-to-market team and develop new products, it said Tuesday.
The startup aims to fill an emerging niche in the hiring process: its AI algorithm flags problematic social media content posted by a job candidate that an employer’s human resources department may have missed in standard background checks. Fama claims to support more than 90% of the background screening industry, and counts 1,500 businesses in 32 countries among its clientele.
“The definition of a ‘background check’ has evolved substantially over the past five years,” Fama founder and CEO Ben Mones said in a statement. “Businesses are finding that changes in the market—namely the enhanced focus on brand and reputation, the importance of developing a welcoming workplace culture—mean that their screening products need to cover new types of risk.”
Molly Wright is an intern for dot.LA. She previously edited the London School of Economics' student newspaper in the United Kingdom, interned for The Hollywood Reporter and was the blogging editor for UCLA's Daily Bruin.