- Strategic redeployment of capital from APAC transactions accelerates Kelly’s specialty strategy
- Expands KellyOCG’s RPO delivery offering
- Creates growth opportunities in the high-tech industry
TROY, Mich. – March 9, 2022 – Kelly® (Nasdaq: KELYA) (Nasdaq: KELYB) today announced that it has acquired RocketPower, a leading provider of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and other outsourced talent solutions. RocketPower’s customers include rapidly scaling U.S. tech companies known for disrupting industries and changing the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Calif., RocketPower will continue to operate under its own brand with its current leadership team and staff as part of KellyOCG, the outsourcing and consulting business of Kelly. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
With 2021 revenue of $28 million, RocketPower has achieved impressive year-over-year growth despite the pandemic and anticipates triple-digit growth in 2022 and beyond. Its growth reflects the increased demand for leading RPO providers to help organizations augment and rebuild their talent acquisition capabilities and full-time workforce as they navigate the rapidly changing talent acquisition landscape.
“We are excited to welcome RocketPower to Kelly; it’s a compelling proof point of the strategy behind the APAC transactions we announced last month to unlock capital and redeploy it to add high-margin, high-growth assets to our core businesses. With our acquisition of RocketPower, we’ve done just that by adding a business to KellyOCG whose strategy and emphasis on RPO and high-tech talent aligns with our growth priorities,” said Peter Quigley, president and chief executive officer of Kelly.
Organizations are increasingly realizing the value of expert RPO providers to support their talent acquisition needs. RPO is one of the fastest-growing outsourcing markets in the world experiencing double-digit growth in the past few years. Projections for the 2022 global RPO market are expected to exceed $5 billion surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
“The pandemic coupled with fluctuating talent acquisition trends are driving tremendous growth in the RPO market now more than ever,” said Tammy Browning, president of KellyOCG. “This acquisition significantly expands KellyOCG’s RPO solution and delivery offering across the globe and enhances our specialty RPO strategy and expertise and provides us with another entry point into the high-tech industry. We’re thrilled about the possibilities that will come from this partnership with RocketPower and elevating our position to become one of the top RPO providers in the market.”
“RocketPower is excited to join the Kelly team and take the next step to build upon our solid foundation for growth,” said Mathew Caldwell, founder and chief executive officer of RocketPower. “Together, RocketPower and Kelly will be a force to reckon with in the RPO market. Kelly’s long-standing commitment to leadership in the RPO industry, its aggressive growth strategy, ongoing tech investments, and its deep expertise – combined with RocketPower’s unique delivery model and strong talent acquisition experience – will empower our collective team to unlock tremendous growth opportunities and continue delivering considerable value to our clients and to our team.”
This release contains statements that are forward looking in nature and, accordingly, are subject to risks and uncertainties. These factors include, but are not limited to, changing market and economic conditions, the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, competitive market pressures including pricing and technology introductions and disruptions, disruption in the labor market and weakened demand for human capital resulting from technological advances, competition law risks, the impact of changes in laws and regulations (including federal, state and international tax laws), unexpected changes in claim trends on workers’ compensation, unemployment, disability and medical benefit plans, or the risk of additional tax liabilities in excess of our estimates, our ability to achieve our business strategy, our ability to successfully develop new service offerings, material changes in demand from or loss of large corporate customers as well as changes in their buying practices, risks particular to doing business with government or government contractors, the risk of damage to our brand, our exposure to risks associated with services outside traditional staffing, including business process outsourcing, services of licensed professionals and services connecting talent to independent work, our increasing dependency on third parties for the execution of critical functions, our ability to effectively implement and manage our information technology strategy, the risks associated with past and future acquisitions, including risk of related impairment of goodwill and intangible assets, exposure to risks associated with investments in equity affiliates including PersolKelly Pte. Ltd., risks associated with conducting business in foreign countries, including foreign currency fluctuations, the exposure to potential market and currency exchange risks relating to our investment in Persol Holdings until its disposition, risks associated with violations of anti-corruption, trade protection and other laws and regulations, availability of qualified full-time employees, availability of temporary workers with appropriate skills required by customers, liabilities for employment-related claims and losses, including class action lawsuits and collective actions, our ability to sustain critical business applications through our key data centers, risks arising from failure to preserve the privacy of information entrusted to us or to meet our obligations under global privacy laws, the risk of cyberattacks or other breaches of network or information technology security, our ability to realize value from our tax credit and net operating loss carryforwards, our ability to maintain specified financial covenants in our bank facilities to continue to access credit markets, and other risks, uncertainties and factors discussed in this release and in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Actual results may differ materially from any forward-looking statements contained herein, and we undertake no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company’s expectations.
About RocketPower
Based in San Francisco, RocketPower provides talent solutions to rapidly scaling technology companies that are disrupting industries and literally changing the world. Our four practices (Recruiting Process Outsourcing, Recruiting for Recruiters, Executive Search, and HR Process Outsourcing) meet the most pressing needs of our clients across mission-critical engineering, product, operations, and go-to-market roles. We're awed by the disruptions our clients are causing in their industries, and we're humbled to play a key role in finding their people because: People Power Business. For more information, please visit www.rocketpower.io.