Hasselt, 26 January 2011 – The investment company LRM is investing 600,000 Euros in the online assessment company Thalento. The extra financing will accelerate the further development of new applications and the international expansion of this young SME.
Online assessments in 36 countries and 18 languages
Thalento was founded in October 2010 as a spin-off of Astyre, an international player in human resources consultancy. Thalento develops, implements and manages innovative technologies for online assessments and talent management.
Applications such as personality tests and cognitive tests are currently being offered via a web application. When required by the client, this can all be customized and personalized with an integrated corporate identity.
After only a few months, Thalento has already built up an impressive portfolio. Its customer base includes such companies as Lunch Garden, Ridge Tool Europe, Whirlpool, TNT Express and Sofim. The existing product range is available in 18 different languages and has users in 36 different countries, including all of the EU countries, India, the US, Russia and Australia.
Accelerating ambitions
LRM is investing 600,000 Euros in Thalento, of which 400,000 Euros is via a capital boost and 200,000 Euros is via a subordinated loan. As a young, innovative player on the international market, it is important to get ahead of competitors, and to increase this lead.
Ben Greeven, CEO of Thalento, explains: ‘The investment by LRM allows us to develop additional competency modules faster and to pull the international commercialization card. In the short term we will be introducing new modules: Motivational, sales, LEAN and management models. Our full range will be expanded to 25 languages and our distribution network in Europe and the US will be strengthened. LRM also offers us extra ICT expertise, complementary to our own background in HR.’
At present, Thalento has 11 employees. This will be increased to 15 by the end of the year.
About Thalento
Based on the experience and expertise of Ben Greeven, Hilde Lemmens and David Decouche, the Astyre Group started developing assessment technology in 2006. After years of testing and validating, the first concept model was launched in 2009. This model later evolved into a broader online assessment and talent management platform aimed at the identification, motivation and development of talent: Thalento. The fact that Thalento is very successful in the development of HR measuring tools has been proven by the first Limburg Innovation Premium, which the company received in 2010. IWT also approved a subsidy request for its SME innovation project: ‘Matching Organization & People’. This enables Thalento to research web applications to better map out the professional environment of businesses.
www.thalento.com
For more information:
Thalento
Ben Greeven
CEO
T +32 11 28 62 42
M +32 477 81 29 59
E ben.greeven@thalento.com
LRM
Jeffrey Alenus
Commercial director
T +32 11 24 68 19
M +32 475 93 03 61
E j.alenus@lrm.be