Local recruiting software firm Canvas acquired by California company

Canvas Talent Inc., a two-year-old Indianapolis-based firm whose software serves as a hub for recruiters to manage text conversations with prospective employees, has been acquired by San Mateo, California-based Jobvite Inc, the companies announced Tuesday.

Jobvite is widely heralded as an industry leader in recruiting software. Financial terms of the deal, which closed in December, were not disclosed.

Canvas, which launched in June 2017, will continue to operate as an independent business unit and all Canvas workers will be retained, company officials said, adding that they expect the number of employees here to grow significantly because of the acquisition. 

“We currently have eight employees, with seven in Indy," Canvas President and CEO Aman Brar told IBJ. "Plans are still formalizing but my current guess would be that Canvas and Jobvite will have greater than 50 employees in Indy by the end of the year. We’re excited to expand our employment footprint in Indy.”

Canvas, 350 E. New York St., will continue to operate under its brand for the foreseeable future, company officials said. Its product platform for Jobvite customers has been branded as Jobvite Text powered by Canvas.

The local firm was founded by former Apparatus Inc. executives who had led that company through a $34.2 million acquisition by Massachusetts-based Virtusa Corp. in 2015.

Brar—who was named to the IBJ 40 Under 40 class of 2014—is a long-time fixture on the tech scene having worked as vice president of entrepreneur Scott Jones’ former company, ChaCha, and also as president of Apparatus.

At the time it was acquired, Apparatus had more than 200 employees. The company provided consulting, service design and delivery of infrastructure management services to help clients improve efficiency.

Brar said he plans to stay with Canvas long after the Jobvite acquisition. “I’m energized about expanding our employment footprint in Indy. I’ll continue to lead Canvas moving forward,” he said.

Though Canvas’ acquisition happened a bit sooner than Brar anticipated, he said in the end it made a lot of sense. He noted that other companies were interested in acquiring Canvas.

“The [human resources] tech market started consolidating a bit faster than we initially predicted,” Brar said. “In our analysis, we felt that joining forces with Jobvite … would create the most compelling recruiting technology platform in the market and a phenomenal long-term home for Canvas. We received tremendous interest due to our lightning-fast success. I’m really proud of the small but mighty Canvas team.”