Salesforce buys Moonhub, a startup building AI tools for hiring | TechCrunch

Updated 1:13 p.m. Pacific: A Salesforce spokesperson told TechCrunch that Moonhub has not, in fact, been acquired (by the company’s definition of the term). Rather, Moonhub is shutting down, and only some of the company’s team — not the whole team, as MoonHub implied in its post about the news — will be joining Salesforce. The original story follows.

Salesforce has quietly snapped up Moonhub, a startup building AI to vet and hire talent. The terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

In a post on Moonhub’s website on Monday, the company said that its entire Menlo Park, California-based team will be joining Salesforce, an early investor in Moonhub.

“As a customer and investor, Salesforce has already played a role in Moonhub’s journey,” wrote Moonhub CEO Nancy Xu in the post. “From our earliest conversations, it [was] also clear that our companies share deep core values like customer trust, along with a resolute conviction in the role AI agents will play in unlocking an era of global innovation and opportunity. We are excited for the impact we will make together.”

Salesforce is on a shopping spree. Just last week, the company completed its $8 billion acquisition of Informatica, a company providing data management solutions. And last month, Salesforce bought Convergence.ai, an automation startup, to bolster the former’s AI product offerings.

Moonhub, which was founded in 2022 by Xu, an ex-Meta engineer, sells a range of tools designed to help companies recruit, evaluate, and hire job candidates. Moonhub’s AI can automatically identify candidates for roles, reaching out and assisting with tasks such as onboarding and payroll management.

Moonhub raised $14.4 million from backers including Khosla Ventures, AIX Ventures, Day One Ventures, and GV (formerly Google Ventures) in addition to Salesforce, according to Crunchbase. The company has hundreds of customers, including Fortune 500 companies, per Xu.

“By joining Salesforce, we are accelerating our mission in this next chapter,” Xu continued in her post. “Moonhub’s talented team will play a key role in advancing Salesforce’s AI strategy.”

Salesforce’s Moonhub purchase is on trend. Despite a decidedly mixed reception from job seekers, AI is increasingly being used in hiring and other HR processes. According to a recent Gallup poll, 93% of Fortune 500 chief human resource officers have begun integrating AI tools and technologies to enhance their practices.