SAN FRANCISCO — June 6, 2023 — Neobrain, Europe’s leading AI-powered talent management solution, today announced its move to further establish itself in the U.S. market with the acquisition of San Francisco-based HR performance platform Flashbrand, which specializes in the continuous optimization of employee performance and engagement. Following the acquisition of WiserSkills in 2022, the acquisition of Flashbrand positions Neobrain as offering the most complete Talent Management platform on the U.S. market. In fact, Neobrain is now the only solution that can meet the strategic corporate challenges of its clients, beyond HR, by linking skills, performance and engagement, to better reveal, mobilize and motivate talent.
Since 2018, Neobrain has been at the forefront of the transition to the skills-driven organization model, having built an agile platform helping large companies allocate the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.
The acquisition of Flashbrand enables a major technological advance, along with a new vision: Continuous skills management to fuel business strategy.
“We are delighted with the acceleration of Neobrain in the US market. Neobrain has an interesting and promising technology,” said Daghan Or Partner at PwC USA.
Skills are at the heart of companies’ competitiveness. With the addition of Flashbrand, Neobrain brings a new systemic approach to Talent management, using skills as shared currency between all key HR activities (recruitment, training, compensation, surveys, retention, etc.) and the company’s challenges.
Companies must recruit, train and retain talent while adapting to the fast pace of business and disruptive technologies. They must also engage and empower a more volatile workforce with new aspirations. Connecting skills, performance, and engagement helps address these challenges, while boosting individual motivation by allowing employees to own their professional development
The foundation of Neobrain’s platform had previously been the trifecta of AI-based competency management, strategic workforce planning and a talent marketplace, but is now complemented by this fourth pillar: focus on performance and engagement. It includes features such as continuous performance monitoring, goals and bonuses, as well as feedback mechanisms and one-to-one interview facilitation. On the engagement side, the new features allow for real-time analysis of employee aspirations and satisfaction, to better retain them.
With Flashbrand’s technology, the Neobrain solution allows an “always on” and agile approach to talent management, while also collecting and connecting a unique new set of data to steer HR strategies. It becomes a tool for continuous dialogue between employees and managers, continuous appraisal of individual and collective performance, and real-time detection of unseen insights and risks.
“The merger of Flashbrand and Neobrain gives birth to a new generation of HR solutions, focused on the employee and enhanced by artificial intelligence. Never before has HR had such strategic data to guide its actions,” said Denis Descause, the founder of Flashbrand who has now been promoted to Chief Product Officer (CPO) at Neobrain and will manage the American subsidiary
Flashbrand also improves the accessibility of Neobrain’s solutions through a native mobile application, providing a unified user experience and ensuring that 100% of employees are involved in skills management.
“All the major groups have tried to move towards a skills-driven organization model for half a decade now. Few have succeeded, and most are coming up against siloed processes,” said Paul Courtaud, Neobrain founder and CEO.
“Our role is to allow them, finally, to power their business through skills, in a seamless AI-powered transition without changing their HRIS. With Flashbrand, we are revolutionizing practices such as objective monitoring, appraisal interviews or “people review”, thanks to this skills expertise.”
The American expansion, the presence of a team in New York and San Francisco, as well as the two recent acquisitions is a continuation of Neobrain’s global vision, aiming to meet the expectations and needs of its customers worldwide, such as multinational companies including Total Energies, Natixis, Safran and Audemars Piguet.
About Neobrain
Founded in 2018 by Paul Courtaud, a young entrepreneur only 22 years old at the time, NEOBRAIN is a scale-up specialized in the use of AI for competency management, strategic workforce planning and continuous performance and engagement optimization. It is at its core technology (platform and applications) that allows companies to anticipate emerging skills and identify gaps with available resources. Included among its 120+ clients are Natixis, Sage, Safran and Bosch. In 2022, the company raised over $22M and acquired WiserSkills, followed by the American Flashbrand in June 2023. Today, the company has 140 Neobrainers in Paris, Frankfurt, Lisbon, New York and San Francisco, and 700,000 active users in 80 countries in 17 languages.
