OVIA Announces Major Strategic Investment from Recruit and Company Name Rebrand to Wowzer

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OVIA, a leader in video screening and interviewing technology, today announced a major investment from strategic partner, Recruit, one of the largest players in the recruitment industry globally. On the heels of this important investment, OVIA is also rebranding the company to Wowzer, Inc. – a more memorable, fun name indicative of the engaging candidate experience the company provides. Wowzer is currently the only video screening company that is backed by a fellow heavyweight in the recruitment industry.

“This investment from Recruit and our rebrand is a very significant milestone for the company”

Wowzer plans to use the investment to take advantage of the traction they already have and continue to grow the team and the company more aggressively. However, beyond the monetary value of Recruit’s investment, Wowzer finds the most value in Recruit’s position in the industry and the experience and counsel they can provide as a strategic partner.

“Video screening will be a key factor in recruitment efforts around the globe,” said Masumi Minegishi, President & Representative Director, CEO of Recruit Co., Ltd. “By investing in the technology at Wowzer, we have an important hand in contributing to that trend. We look forward to working with the Wowzer team in further innovating the recruitment process.”

Wowzer customers are reducing the number and increasing the quality of in-person interviews, thus giving busy hiring managers time to focus on other responsibilities. Wowzer has seen a reduction in times to fill positions by half (from 4 weeks to 2 weeks), and costs savings ranging from 50-80%.

“This investment from Recruit and our rebrand is a very significant milestone for the company,” said Rodrigo Martinez, CEO and co-founder of Wowzer. “Having Recruit onboard gives us unprecedented insight into recruitment, while opening doors to help us compete in the recruitment industry globally.”

DCM, an early stage venture capital firm, led Wowzer’s first funding round. David Chao, co-founder and general partner at DCM, serves on the board of directors at Wowzer and previously worked at Recruit. He also serves on the Board of 51job, China's largest HR recruiting services provider.

About Wowzer

Wowzer is a video screening platform, highly scalable and customizable, enabling both organizations and candidates to create a more human oriented recruitment experience. Wowzer’s unique platform enables an organization to communicate its strengths, efficiently manage the recruiting process as well as enables a candidate to present his/her strengths in a more personalized manner. Wowzer has clients globally including Adidas, Deloitte & Intel.

About Recruit

Headquartered in Tokyo Japan, Recruit is a global leader in human resource provisioning and is one of the largest staffing companies in the world. Recruit also operate online matching businesses in the fields of Travel, Housing, Bridal, Restaurant, Group Buying and so on. Recruit’s Sales were almost $10 billion in 2011.

About DCM

DCM is an early stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley, Beijing and Tokyo with more than $2 billion under management. DCM has investments in more than 140 technology companies across the United States and Asia and provides hands-on operational guidance and a global network of business and financial resources. DCM has backed industry-leading companies such as 51job, About.com, Clearwire, eDreams, Foundry Networks, Kabu.com, Sling Media, SMIC, and VanceInfo as well as upcoming startups such as Bill.com, Bridgelux, Happy Elements, PapayaMobile and Trion Worlds. Recent successes include China-based IPOs: Renren, BitAuto, DangDang, Luxin and VIPShop and US-based M&A and IPOs: Fortinet, PGP (Symantec) and Sandforce (LSI).