Yello, one of the early pioneers of early talent and campus recruitment, and WayUp, a DEI and diversity sourcing platform, announced that the companies are joining forces. The WayUp team will be joining Yello, and WayUp co-founders will play major roles in the combined company. The two companies will operate under Yello as a legal entity but continue to keep their independent branding with a now combined 200 employees.

“We can send all the diverse applicants into applicant tracking systems or CRMs, but if companies don’t have the automation workflow, and the tools and analytics that they need to make sure that those candidates are truly making their way through, then these candidates are sitting in a black hole,” Liz Wessel, co-founder and CEO of WayUp, said in an interview.

Wessel’s realization of the “black hole” that candidates fell into soon turned into conversations with Yello, which she describes as the “most robust [candidate relationship management solution] in the market for early career.”

“Over the past year, we’ve seen more companies than ever take their diversity recruiting goals seriously, which has been amazing,” said Wessel in a press release. “That being said, we also see that many companies plan to take a hybrid approach to recruiting both in-person and virtually as the pandemic comes to an end, and we knew there was only one company that filled the physical event gap for recruiters, while also providing a robust CRM. And that company is Yello, which made merging a no-brainer for us.”

The WayUp database will evolve to be the sourcing arm of Yello’s campus recruiting solution. It provides a diverse database of over 6 million candidates, including:

• Recent graduates and students from across the country who attended over 7,000 campuses.


• 71% Black, Hispanic or female candidates as well as tens of thousands of veterans


• Candidate self-reported data on major, location, campus, graduation, gender, ethnicity and more

Yello has fallen behind its largest competitor, Handshake, in recent years. Handshake recently raised significant capital and entered unicorn status, while Yello spent some time attempting to expand into the experienced-hire market with a CRM offering it has since curtailed. Adding WayUp's DEI focus and services may provide it with an edge to leapfrog past Handshake.