Yardstik lands $30M Series B to keep watch on employees after they're hired
What's the deal? Yardstik, a workforce screening startup that monitors employees for fraud, has raised a $30 million Series B led by Harbert Growth PartnersDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Rally VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, MissionOGDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Crosslink Capital, Grotech VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and Great North VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → also joined, bringing total funding to $65 million.
What's the endgame? The company wants to fix what it calls a blindspot in most HR departments: firms typically vet workers once, before hiring, and never again. Its Human Trust Platform combines background screening, identity verification, fraud detection, and continuous monitoring to track staff for as long as they stay.
Why now? Yardstik cites data from the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners showing the average occupational fraud scheme runs about a year before detection. Founder and chief executive Andrew Johnson traces the idea to his time at Branch Microfinance BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, where he found employees using stolen Social Security numbers to work under false identities — undetected until victims received tax bills.
By the numbers: Yardstik says one in 30 applicants fails a government identity check, and its platform flags roughly 2,900 incidents a year of applicants using flagged or duplicate Social Security numbers. Revenue grew 149% over the past year, with a 98% customer retention rate.
The round lands in the upper tier of its class, sitting near the 77th percentile by size for comparable deals. Alongside the funding, Yardstik launched Fraud Insights, giving HR teams a live view of aggregated risk signals across their workforce.
What could go wrong? Continuously monitoring employees raises clear privacy and consent questions, and a platform built to watch staff "for as long as they're working at the company" may face pushback from workers and regulators alike.
The signal: "The legacy background check industry was built around a single moment in time, even though workforce risk changes every day," Johnson said. Yardstik is betting that employers want a "live video feed" of workforce risk rather than a one-off snapshot — a shift from hiring gatekeeping to permanent oversight.
Read more: siliconangle.com
Image credit: Generated with Gemini
