Nesta impact Investments has exited its shareholding in Applied, an innovative recruitment software business which uses behavioural science to eliminate bias.

The business has just completed a £1.5 million investment round, supporting future growth and enabling Nesta Impact Investments, which helped establish the business prior to investing in 2017, to sell its shareholding.

The online recruitment tool was spun out from the Behavioural Insights Team, a joint venture between Nesta and the Cabinet Office, in December 2016 and has been developed in partnership with Harvard Professor and behavioural expert Iris Bohnet.

Nathan Elstub, Chief Investment Officer at Nesta Impact Investments commented:

"We're delighted to have been part of Applied's impressive journey, and have seen the business go from strength to strength: raise early-stage finance, spin-out from Behavioural Insights Team, grow its impressive client base and in this round secure major funding.

The Applied platform approaches recruitment in a very different and particularly robust way, opening up employment opportunities much more widely, including to less advantaged individuals. As Applied's client base continues to grow and use Applied broadly, we expect the platform to make a substantial difference to the employment opportunities accessed by less advantaged individuals. We are pleased to secure this exit for Nesta Impact Investments 1 L.P., showing that it is possible to make socially impactful investments without compromising on financial return in line with our fund's strategy".

Nesta Impact Investments is a £17.6 million impact investment fund supported by Big Society Capital, Omidyar Network and Nesta. The fund is run by Nesta Investment Management, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nesta.