Xrecruiter predicts revenue of $100m next financial year when it expands to the US

Two childhood friends who reached out to each other during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic are revolutionising the recruitment industry and their next goal is the giant US market.

Xrecruiter co-founders and owners Blake Thompson and Declan Kluver.

During the darkest days of the Covid-19 epidemic childhood friends and recruitment experts Blake Thompson and Declan Kluver reached out to each other in a move that has led to one of Australia’s fastest-growing companies.

Both operated recruitment agencies, but the Covid-era conversations led to the development Xrecruiter – a one-stop shop which provides back-end services for those working in the sector who want to step up and become business owners.

They started the tech business in Brisbane in August 2022 and since then have signed up 66 partner agencies in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland, underpinned by their proprietary SaaS (software as a service) platform.

In the 2023 financial year Xrecruiter had a $975,000 in combined revenue with partner agencies and in ’24 $16m – a 1540 per cent increase. For the 2025 financial year the company forecasts a combined revenue of $55m, doubling to $100m the following year when Xrecruiter expands offshore.

At the start of next year Mr Thompson, 32, and his young family will depart Brisbane to establish operations in Austin, Texas.

“There’s no business like this in Australia. There’s something similar in the UK but the US is greenfield territory and there’s no one who does what we do,” Mr Thompson said.

“The recruiters in the US get the bad end of the stick. They work extremely hard and they generate a lot of fees for their agency but hardly get anything for it.

“They’re very excited at the prospect of Xrecruiter coming and transforming their lives.

“The US market is 25 times bigger than the Australian market. We estimate about five to 10 new partners will sign on a month in the US in addition to five or six in Australia and New Zealand.”

Xrecruiter co-founders Declan Kluver and Blake Thompson at Brisbane office.

The pair, who grew up in northern Brisbane, met when they were children playing rugby league.

They lost contact and Mr Kluver, also 32 and a Padua College Kedron alumni, completed a boilermaker apprenticeship, got into the car trade and had his own juice company, Blended, for a couple of years before Mr Thompson helped him get his first job in recruitment at Roc Consulting.

That led to establishing his own recruitment agency, Blended Employment.

Mr Thompson – a St Joseph’s Nudgee old boy – also had a roundabout journey working in car sales before going into recruitment and later establishing recruitment agency Vendito Consulting in 2017.

Mr Kluver said both recruitment agencies, which are still operating, were going well until Covid-19 hit and revenue was in free fall.

“We had always looked at each other as competitors and even though we were mates since school but we never thought to reach out to each other. The mindset in recruitment is don’t chat to competitors, they will steal your candidates,” he said.

“But during Covid we reached out and rebuilt our relationship. We really started to see the value of having someone in the business who understood exactly what you’re going through, and what challenges you’re facing.

“Over the next couple of years we became much better business owners by supporting each other with conversations about how to manage staff, how to charge more, improve operations and get better technology.

“And over that time we had mates ask us how to start their own recruitment agencies. We helped one get his business off the ground. We thought there’s a market here and then thought let’s commercialise this.”

The Xrecruiter process takes about six weeks for a new owner to be established in their own business.

They pay an upfront fee to Xrecruiter ranging from $7000 to $40,000 and they pay a monthly subscription.

They use Xrecruiter’s white label platform – or SaaS – that provides branding, marketing, accounting, payroll, licensing, advisory and technology. Every payment to one of their partner recruitment agencies goes through the platform.

The Teneriffe, Brisbane-based company currently has 27 internal staff and will add another three in the next few weeks.

Mr Kluver and Mr Thompson own the company along with Matthew Cossens, who is Xrecruiter’s chief growth officer specialising in coaching new business owners.

Mr Kluver said although they were still young they had built on their experiences to create Xrecruiter.

Along the way he said there have been “learning experiences” but as the company name suggests – they and their business partners have taken a step up.

“The reason why it’s called Xrecruiter is that they used to be a recruiter and now they’re business owners,” Mr Kluver said.

Mr Thompson said they were passionate about helping people take that next step up and start their own recruitment business.