Kira Talent

Kira Talent is a Canadian start-up company. The company operates a cloud-based holistic admissions assessment platform designed for use by academic admissions departments to assess and enroll students. Organizations are able to create a customized assessment and record video questions, receive candidate responses, and evaluate the responses virtually within the platform. Presently, Kira Talent’s office is located in Toronto and the CEO is Emilie Cushman.

History
Kira Talent was founded in 2012 by Emilie Cushman and Konrad Listwan It was named the Most Outstanding Venture among the Next 36 (Canada’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Initiative) participants of 2012. The Next 36 Program provided seed capital and mentorship.

Kira Talent's founder and CEO, Emilie Cushman, was named to the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 for Education.

Product
Kira Talent’s cloud-based applicant assessment platform was introduced as an alternative to in-person and phone interviews. The interviewer records their questions over video and sends them over to candidates with an established deadline. After viewing each question, an interviewee has an allotted amount of time to think over the query, after which the webcam turns on and another specified time frame is given for a response. Questions can invite timed written or timed video responses. After applicants have responded the reviewers can log-in to see, rank, share, and compare the results.

In 2017, Kira introduced the ability to upload documents like resumes and written essays as well as a number of admissions-specific review tools like rubrics and analytics.

In 2019, Kira Talent partnered with Turnitin to offer a plagiarism checker for college admissions.

The platform is GDPR and WCAG 2.0 AA compliant.

Publications & Speaking
Kira Talent maintains a higher education blog and online newsletter, The Admissions Roundup, on higher education admissions and recruitment.

Notable publication releases include Breaking Down Bias in Admissions Demystifying Holistic Admissions: The Comprehensive Guide to Holistic Review and The Future of Admissions Assessment.

In 2018, Kira's team spoke on admissions and enrollment at the Ontario University Registrars' Association (OURA) Conference, the Graduate Management Admissions Council Annual Meeting, as well as the Council of Graduate Schools Annual Meeting. Kira Talent representatives also participated in a holistic admissions workshop at James Madison University.

Financing
In October 2012, Kira Talent closed a seed capital investment round led by Relay Ventures and supported by 18 investors, including entrepreneur Tony Lacavera,  business strategist Roger Martin and financier David Shaw.

In August 2016, Kira Talent raised a $5 million Series A.

Schools using Kira Talent
Schools using Kira Talent include:
 * Rotman School of Management
 * Foster School of Business
 * Olin Business School
 * Ivey Business School
 * University of South Wales
 * Questrom School of Business
 * Weatherhead School of Management
 * Carey Business School
 * Haas School of Business
 * Smith School of Business
 * Kellogg School of Management
 * Yale School of Management
 * Fisher College of Business
 * INSEAD
 * London Business School
 * Imperial College London
 * University of Waterloo School of Engineering
 * McMaster University Faculty of Engineering
 * Saïd Business School
 * The York School
 * University of Connecticut School of Business