Hilco Streambank (“Hilco”) is seeking offers to acquire the intellectual property assets of specialist recruitment agency The Partnership SK Limited (In Liquidation) (“Sidekicks” or the “Company”), on behalf of the Joint Liquidators of the Company Fred Satow and David Meany of Quantuma Advisory Limited.
Traditional recruitment agencies that rely on a steady stream of candidate and employer attraction and outdated technology often experience barriers to growth, including brand perception issues, an inability to attract candidates, lack of speed and high operating costs. Founded in 2015, Sidekicks aimed to address the challenges prevalent in the market by combining cutting edge technology with the traditional recruitment model to roll out end-to-end recruitment technology.
More than £250k was invested in developing Sidekick’s unique proprietary technology proposition, which offers a range of services that are key to the success of a modern recruitment agency. The Company designed and developed complementary technology applications, each intelligently designed to significantly augment the capabilities of human recruiters rather than replace them. The Company’s suite of unique technology-led solutions to critical industry problems is designed to deliver a faster, cheaper, higher quality and more efficient service than is currently available from other recruitment agencies.
Prior to its Liquidation, Sidekicks recruited for an array of businesses across various sectors, including tech, fashion, finance and law and recruited at all levels, from graduates to experienced professionals.
The world of work is changing, and this entire sector is ripe for dramatic disruption. In the UK, the Temporary-Employment Placement Agencies industry is worth c. £37bn and is expected to grow over the next five years on the back of recovering business confidence and a resurgent labour market, driving demand for industry services. This opportunity offers a prospective buyer the chance to exploit the need for a unique solution to the chronic problems prevalent in the recruitment industry.
The Company’s unique proprietary technologies, in an advanced stage of development, augment the capabilities of human recruiters to offer a multi-faceted recruitment solution.
CV Sidekicks
The Company’s CV Sidekick combines artificial intelligence and a range of sophisticated designs to deliver a transformative technology that enables job seekers to create the perfect CV. Drawing data from the user elegantly and effortlessly, CV Sidekick then presents the data in an optimised format, resulting in an attractive, recruiter-approved CV in as little as 10 minutes.
CV Sidekick’s AI-powered interface harnesses aspects of sympathetic, skilled human recruitment through technology, intuitively encouraging conversational-style data input and providing intelligent content prompts. Users are encouraged to answer in a various forms, combining multiple-choice and tick box questions with free text answers. CV Sidekick then analyses the data to produce an eye-catching and well-written CV, available for download as a PDF file or an editable text file version. Prior to Liquidation, the Company previously operated a simple revenue model of £10 per CV, with Stripe and PayPal integration. The innovative technology can also be rebranded with ease to suit the needs of the buyer.
Sidekicks Temporary
Sidekicks Temporary combines the infrastructure of a traditional temp desk with on-demand technology to deliver a bespoke desktop and IOS/Android app that simplifies the hiring process for temp staff. Sidekicks Temporary enables real-time hiring of the best pre-screened candidates, automating costly administrative work and increasing visibility.
The Company’s specialist Sidekicks Temporary technology offers employers total control of the hiring process, with automated processes, efficient filtering, and complete visibility on payment dates. Furthermore, the Company’s unique gender and ethnicity-blind first-stage process prevent any risk of unconscious bias, encouraging compliance with diversity guidelines. The prospective buyer would be poised to further develop the technology with PAYE integration, offering further possibilities for innovation.
The brand’s mission is to be a new name in the recruitment space as a specialist recruiter in the market and to deliver a talent agency capable of transforming service levels within the UK administrative support market.
The brand and sidekicks.london website previously attracted over 1.5k unique visitors per month, boosted by engaging and eye-catching social media accounts.
The brand and sidekicks.london website previously attracted over 1.5k unique visitors per month, boosted by engaging and eye-catching social media accounts.
Sidekicks established excellent relationships with its extensive database of clients and candidates, garnering strong positive reviews and being rated “very good” based on 70+ reviews on Yably.
Sidekicks have been featured by several well-respected press publications, including The Huffington Post, Recruitment International, Grapevine Leaders and HR News, further boosting the brand.
Ava
The Ava brand supports the Company’s fledgling CV writing service. Ava is a unique venture which helps job hunters to produce well-formatted, recruiter-approved CV’s capable of overcoming CV filters, quickly and effortlessly.
The brand centres around harnessing the benefit of sympathetic, skilled human recruitment and making it available through technology. Despite being in its infancy, the Ava brand is supported by a website and social media following.
Registered
The “Sidekicks” brand name is protected by a UK registered trade mark (UK00003402404), covering consultancy and advisory services in relation to personnel recruitment.
Unregistered
The Company is also likely to possess rights in unregistered trade marks in relation to the “Sidekicks” logo as below.
The Company is also likely to possess rights in unregistered trade marks in relation to the “Ava” sub-brand name and logo below.
The primary sidekicks.london domain name is available to acquire, alongside the talktoava.ai domain name, which support’s the Company’s CV writing service.
The Company’s owns the copyright in the sleek informational websites supporting the Sidekicks and Ava brands, hosted at sidekicks.london and talktoava.ai, respectively.
The Company has a customer database comprising over 2800 former clients.
The Sidekicks brand has attracted a solid social media following:
Instagram – @sidekickslondon 1K followers
Facebook – @LondonSidekicks c. 400 followers
Twitter – @LondonSidekicks c. 300 followers
Rights in the Ava-branded Instagram account, @talktoava, are also available to acquire.
All expressions of interest and offers should be directed to Hilco Streambank in writing. A Bid Submission Form for submitting offers is available on request.
The Joint Liquidators act as an agent of the Company and without personal liability.
The bidder acknowledges that Hilco acts as an agent for the Joint Liquidators who offers for sale only what right, title and interest (if any) the Company possesses in the assets. Such sale will be without any warranties, expressed or implied. The information provided has not been verified by Hilco or the Joint Liquidators and bidders are deemed to have carried out their own due diligence.
VAT, if applicable, at 20% will be added to the price. A non-refundable deposit of 20% will be payable by the buyer within 48 hours of bid acceptance. A buyer’s premium of 10% of the sale price is payable by the winning bidder. Legal completion to occur within 5 business days of bid acceptance. Hilco Streambank’s full Terms and Conditions apply.
