Brighton Park leads investment in HR firm that utilizes AI

GREENWICH — Investment firm Brighton Park Capital announced Monday that it had led a $40 million Series B investment round in Paradox, a fast-growing Arizona startup that provides artificial intelligencepowered HR services.

Greenwich-based Brighton Park’s funding will support a firm whose AI assistant “Olivia” automates HR tasks, including answering candidate and employee questions, collecting feedback, scheduling interviews, streamlining “onboarding” of employees and hosting virtual events.

“Olivia” speaks more than 100 languages and operates across the web; text messages; messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and WeChat; and voice assistants like

Alexa and Google Assistant.

Brighton Park founding partner Mike Gregoire, who led the deal, will serve as Paradox’s chairman. His previous executive experience includes serving as CEO of cloud-based talent management firm Taleo from 2005 to 2012 until its $1.9 billion acquisition by Oracle. After leaving Taleo, Gregoire joined CA Technologies as chairman and CEO.

“Paradox is fundamentally aligned with where the world is going,” Gregoire said in a statement. “The company is seeing increased adoption as digital transformation becomes more critical to organizational resiliency and long-term success. Paradox is the clear leader in its category and we’re thrilled to partner with their team to execute a vision for the future of work.”

Scottsdale-based Paradox’s more than 200 enterprise clients include McDonald’s, CVS Health, Unilever, Intel and Aramark.

Its accolades include being named one of Human Resource Executive’s Best HR Products of 2019 and a citation as one of Forbes’ Top 500 Startup Employers.

Founded in 2016, about 140 work for the firm today.

“No one goes into recruiting or HR because they like screening resumes, scheduling interviews or managing paperwork,” Paradox founder and CEO Aaron Matos, who started his career as an HR practitioner, said in a statement. “Our clients love our AI assistant ‘Olivia’ because she helps them get back to doing the strategic people work that got them into recruiting and HR in the first place.”

Brighton Park specializes in investments in areas including software, information services and health care. Its main offices are on the edge of downtown Greenwich, at 330 Railroad Ave.

Contributed photo A view of HR firm Paradox’s main offices in Scottsdale, Ariz. Greenwich-based Brighton Park Capital has led a $40 million investment in Paradox.