Recruit Co. Ltd., one of the world’s largest staffing firms, announced investments this week in two additional nonstaffing companies. McDonald’s is now allowing job seekers to start the application process by using the Alexa voice assistant. Paro announces a $10 million funding round.

Recruit Co. Ltd.

Recruit Co. Ltd. announced investments this week in Fundbox Ltd. and ZenBusiness. This is the company's latest round of investments in nonstaffing businesses.

Fundbox is a B2B payments and credit network that uses machine learning to make faster lending decisions. It had announced this week a $176 million series C funding round and that it secured a $150 million credit facility. Recruit was one of the investors in the funding round along with Allianz X, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan and several others. Fundbox is based in Israel.

ZenBusiness is an Austin, Texas-based online platform that aims to assist in the formation and operations of businesses. The company this week announced a $15 million funding round.

This is the latest round of investments in nonstaffing businesses by Recruit. Other recent investments include Blockstack, Starship Technologies and PayMate.

McDonald’s Corp.

Workers can now start their job applications for positions at McDonald’s Corp. by using their Alexa voice assistants.

McDonald’s reports that it is the first voice-initiated application process.

“We must continue to innovate and think of creative, and in this case, groundbreaking ways to meet potential job seekers on devices they are already using, like Alexa,” said David Fairhurst, McDonald’s executive VP and chief people officer.

Job seekers can start the application process by saying “Alexa, help me get a job at McDonald’s.” Job  seekers can also use any device with the Google Assistant built-in by saying, “OK Google, talk to McDonald’s apply thru.”

Paro

Paro, a company that provides on-demand corporate finance experts, announced an $10 million funding round this week, TechCrunch reported. The company aims to focus on high-level finance talent.