PRO Unlimited acquired WillHire, a provider of direct-sourcing solutions and talent pool management based in Austin, Texas. The companies announced the deal Wednesday. It marks a continuation of a series of acquisitions by MSP and VMS provider PRO Unlimited.
Growth in contingent work has prompted organizations to look at different ways of using their brand to attract talent, and the deal will allow PRO Unlimited to offer clients a more holistic and robust solution, CEO Kevin Akeroyd said.
“The growth of contingent workforce programs has been accelerated and modernized by remote work, globalization and Covid,” Akeroyd said. “This segment is now 40% to 50% of the entire workforce; over $5 trillion in annual spend; and becoming highly dependent on data, technology, analytics and worker experience management.”
WillHire will become part of PRO Unlimited’s existing direct-sourcing solution, DirectSource PRO, which went live in April and has been adopted by more than 40 large companies. DirectSource PRO with this deal will provide direct sourcing for white-collar workers as well as light industrial, blue-collar and shift workers. It also adds WillHire’s self-assessment technology.
In commenting on the PRO Unlimited deal announced today, WillHire CEO Praneeth Patlola said “Our primary objective has always been to help enterprises transform their talent ecosystem to make talent a competitive advantage.”
PRO Unlimited’s other recent deal include Workforce Logiq, a provider of VMS, MSP, RPO and direct sourcing in August. It announced the acquisition of Brainnet Group, a Netherlands-based vendor neutral managed services provider, in February. PRO Unlimited announced in January that it acquired PeopleTicker, a firm that provides data on pay rates, markups and bill rates on contingent workers. Also, PRO Unlimited itself was acquired by private equity firm EQT in a deal announced in June.