Findera is a new search engine that enables users to find professionals in a matter of seconds by scrawling through publicly available data

Findera

Finding professionals could soon be easier after new search engine Findera was launched – helping businesses to network and recruit.

It claims to differ from other search engines in that it allows users to search more than 130 million professionals based on their department, position, experience, location, company and revenue.

Founded by Christophe Daligault, Lei Sun and Li Hong, the trio have compared Findera to job search website Indeed in making it fast and easy to find business leads.

The start-up was funded by Taiwanese entrepreneur and Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang, and ex eBay COO Maynard Webb.

Christophe Daligault, Findera COO and co-founder said: “The fabric of work is changing. Work relationships are more fluid, decentralised and autonomous.

Findera
A Findera search result for Maynard Webb

“Professionals need an efficient way to develop their most important professional relationships.

“A free search engine provides a fresh alternative to time-consuming social networks and costly specialised services.

“Findera empowers all business professionals, including recruiters, business owners, consultants, business development and sales professionals, regardless of the size of their company and their budgets.”

 

How Findera works

It works by searching the internet for publicly available information on news websites and databases – such as those used by sales and marketing departments.

The Findera website claims that it then analyses, processes and validates the information.

However, when Compelo tested the website it found some information was incorrect or out of date.

Users can also request for their information to be removed from the search engine by request.

The website is described as being in an “alpha” phase and the company has encouraged users to suggest changes and improvements to the service.

It is currently free to use but in order to access other people’s contact details and get personalised search recommendations based on preferences, users must make an account.

Findera

Once they have found the people they are looking for, it is possible to bookmark individuals or export their information to other tools such as spreadsheets.

The search engine presents the information in a simple, stripped-back format in order to increase the speed and ease of use, and avoid the distractions of social media sites.

 

Findera said the search engine has proved particularly useful for business development and recruitment with more than 50% of its users using the tool for one of those two purposes.

Cindy Padnos, managing partner of venture capitalist firm Illuminate Ventures, has used the platform.

She said: “Finding the right people is the starting point for most business endeavours. Unfortunately, this can be more difficult than it should be.

“A critical part of my role is helping our founders connect with top professionals at many companies.

“Finding the connections I seek is amazingly fast and easy with Findera.”