Lever

Lever is a talent acquisition software company founded in 2012 by Nate Smith, Sarah Nahm, Randal Truong, and Brian Noguchi in San Francisco, California. Accepted into Y Combinator in 2012, the company built a platform that merges applicant tracking system (ATS) and candidate relationship management (CRM) functionality into a single product, enabling companies to manage active applicants and passive talent pipelines without separate tools.

Lever's platform includes modules for candidate sourcing, application tracking, interview scheduling, hiring collaboration, workflow automation, and analytics. The company's products—Lever Hire, Lever Nurture, and Lever Analytics—are supported by over 300 third-party integrations. Notable customers have included Netflix, Atlassian, KPMG, and McGraw-Hill Education, with the platform targeting scaling organizations that require combined ATS and CRM capabilities.

Lever raised approximately $123 million across six funding rounds, including a $2.8 million seed round in September 2012 led by SV Angel, a $10 million Series A in October 2014 led by Matrix Partners, a $20 million Series B in January 2016 led by Scale Venture Partners, and a $50 million Series D in 2021 led by Apax Digital Fund. In August 2022, Lever was acquired by Employ Inc., a talent acquisition holding company that also owns JazzHR and Jobvite, expanding Employ's combined customer base to over 26,000 companies.