One of the world’s largest employment screening companies servicing the likes of Sephora, Nestle and Randstad has acquired Canberra-based VerifyNow today for an undisclosed sum.
Accurate Background’s buyout comes eight months after it successfully snapped up UK-based Vero Screening, with the latest move supporting its expansion strategy into Australia.
Founded in 2019, VerifyNow mainly services SMEs and government clients, offering psychometric and aptitude testing, Australian and international police checks, identity verification, employment history verification, reference checks, and more.
Under the agreement, VerifyNow will continue to be led by CEO and co-founder Khai Ngo, who will join Accurate Background’s leadership team post-acquisition.
"Our customers and employees will benefit greatly from this acquisition by Accurate as we look to expand our service and capabilities within Australia and New Zealand and provide better screening options for multinational clients with the Accurate platform," said Ngo.
Based in California, Accurate Background offers a plethora of services including compliant background checks, drug health and screening, social media screening, as well as criminal record monitoring. To meet the demand for its services, the company employs 1,700-plus staff.
The group also provides tailored screening services to cater to industries such as healthcare, insurance, retail and transport. To date, Accurate Background claims to have served more than 16,000 customers worldwide and boasts a 98.5 per cent retention rate.
As part of the acquisition, the VerifyNow team will continue to serve its existing client base while offering support to new multinational clients.
"We remain committed to our global employment screening capabilities while continuing to advance our innovative approach to candidate and client experience, screening technology, and compliance expertise," Accurate Background CEO Tim Dowd said.
"Accurate and VerifyNow have been partners for several years, and we are excited to deepen this relationship as we seek to better serve our clients' background screening needs in Australia and beyond."
To oversee the company’s EMEA and APAC operations, Accurate Background has promoted senior director product manager Aaron Hayes to general manager and EVP.
"The need to tap into a global hiring pool continues to grow, and employment screening on an international level is more important than ever," said Hayes.
"Our expanded global footprint helps us serve Accurate customers with an entrepreneurial mindset and helps ensure a seamless, unified candidate experience at scale."
Sydney-based law firm Gilbert + Tobin represented Accurate in the transaction, while the sellers of VerifyNow were represented by MV Law.
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