Yardstik just put $30 million behind a harder hiring problem. The workforce technology company raised a Series B led by Harbert Growth Partners, with existing investors Rally Ventures, MissionOG, Crosslink Capital, Grotech Ventures, and Great North Ventures participating.
Announced on August 27, 2026, the round brings Yardstik’s total capital raised to $65 million. The company plans to use the new money to develop additional fraud prevention and workforce monitoring capabilities—because checking someone once and hoping for the best is not much of a trust strategy.
Generative AI has changed the shape of hiring fraud. Synthetic identities, fabricated credentials, deepfake interviews, and fraudulent documents can enter the process before a conventional background check has finished doing its one familiar trick.
A background check performed on someone’s first day provides little visibility into risks that develop later. Licenses expire, insurance changes, certifications lapse, and new records can appear after a worker joins an organization.
From Background Checks to Continuous Monitoring
Founded in 2020, Yardstik has evolved from a background screening provider into a Human Trust Platform. Its platform combines fraud prevention, identity verification, background screening, credential verification, and continuous workforce monitoring.
Yardstik’s Continuous Monitoring technology enrolls workers in post-hire monitoring. That coverage includes criminal databases, sex offender registries, federal watchlists, and other records, giving employers visibility beyond the initial hiring decision.
The company’s monitoring capabilities also include motor vehicle report monitoring, Office of Inspector General exclusion monitoring, and automated alerts for license, insurance, or certification expiry. The Series B will allow Yardstik to broaden this monitoring model.
Andrew Johnson, CEO of Yardstik, framed the point with a specific deadline: “If a license lapses the day after someone’s hired, an employer should know that day, not at the next annual review.”
That approach moves workforce trust from a single approval event into an ongoing process. It also gives the company a clear reason to combine screening, identity checks, credentials, and monitoring rather than treating each as a separate administrative task.
Detecting Fraud Before the Background Check
Yardstik applies AI and data analysis earlier in the hiring process through its Detect AI technology. Detect AI identifies signals associated with identity manipulation and fraudulent applications before traditional background checks.
That timing matters because synthetic identities and fabricated documents can make an application look complete before the underlying person or credentials receive proper scrutiny. Deepfake interviews add another layer to the problem by making the hiring interaction itself easier to manipulate.
The company’s strategy now spans both sides of the hiring timeline: Detect AI looks for suspicious signals before a traditional check, while Continuous Monitoring tracks records and credentials after a worker joins. The Series B funds more capability across that same model.
Yardstik’s financing arrived two days after another AI trust and safety company announced a major round. Alice raised $140 million on August 25, 2026, in funding led by the Apax Digital Funds, with MoreTech and Phoenix Financial participating.
Alice’s existing investors include Resolute Ventures, Grove Ventures, CRV, Highland Europe, Vintage Investments, Norwest, NFX, and Claltech. The round brings Alice’s total funding to $280 million as the company approaches $100 million in ARR.
Yardstik and Alice operate in different parts of the trust and safety market, but their funding points to the same pressure: AI has made fraud easier to produce, while organizations need stronger systems to verify identities, assess risk, and monitor changes over time. The answer is not another annual checkbox. It is a trust process that keeps watching.
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