Career site creator AD1 Holdings (AD1:AU) announced that it has entered into a share sale agreement for the acquisition of Scout Talent Group, an Australian-based software-as-a-service talent acquisition platform for a total consideration of AUD 65 million (USD 45.1 million).

Scout was stablished in Brisbane in 2007. Scout says its software is designed to facilitate automation within in-house recruitment teams solving the challenge of talent acquisition for midsized companies across all industries and includes a specialised HR Customer Relationship Management platform. Scout added that its niche is mid-market organisations of up to 3,000 staff however its scalable offering means it currently provides recruitment solutions to customers with approximately 30,000 staff.

Managing Director of Scout, Tudor Marsden-Huggins said, “We are delighted to become a part of AD1. Scout Talent has a fantastic team enjoying great success to date. We look forward to accelerating our growth under the AD1 umbrella and believe the alignment of culture and values, along with our combined SaaS products and customer synergies will enhance our overall offering to become the dominant provider of HR Tech products and services.”

AD1 CEO, Brendan Kavenagh, said, “AD1’s strategy has been focused on delivering new and attractive SaaS verticals, specifically in the global online HR talent acquisition and staff development markets.”

“As a growing number of organisations digitise and streamline their recruitment process, Scout’s complimentary technology is transformative for AD1, further strengthening our offering by providing instant scale and significant opportunities with the ability to up-sell and cross-sell our existing products to new and existing customers and markets,” Kavenagh said.

“Scout is the market leader in Talent Acquisition and Management Software with strong capabilities and an expansive footprint across Australia and North America within a highly fragmented market providing opportunities to increase our customer base and expand into new verticals,” Kavenagh said. “We are delighted that the key Board and Management of Scout will be joining AD1, who will be integral to successfully integrating the business into our existing operations.”

According to AD1, Scout is complementary to AD1’s existing business model of providing SaaS-based enterprise solutions for recruitment and mentoring delivering significant scale and growth opportunities via the cross-sell and up-sell of new & existing products to new and existing customers and industries. The acquisition diversifies AD1's current business offering and significantly increase its contracted recurring revenue.

The acquisition will expand AD1’s presence domestically and across North America where approximately 25% of Scout’s customers are currently located.

On a pro-forma basis, AD1 and Scout will generate revenue over AUD 30 million (USD 20.8 million) in FY23. The company anticipates that completion of the acquisition will occur in late October or early November.

AD1 Chairman Andrew Henderson said, "This transaction is another successful step in AD1’s vision and strategy. The acquisition of Scout Talent has enabled us to execute upon a group strategy as previously indicated to the market. Post transaction, AD1 will expand operations across North America, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, generating more than AUD 30 million (USD 20.8 million) in revenue including fantastic cross-sell prospects into over 900 customers globally.  This combined business platform will see AD1 become a key player in the listed HR technology space."