Lightcast

What Lightcast does

Lightcast is a private labor market intelligence company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Moscow, Idaho, backed by private equity firm KKR through Obsidian BG Holdings LP. The company has compiled more than 18 billion labor market data points—including job postings, career profiles, and compensation data—into a proprietary knowledge asset built on 25 years of data classification expertise, proprietary skills and occupation taxonomies (O*NET-SOC, NOC 2021, ANZSCO 2022, SOC), and machine learning classifiers achieving approximately 90% accuracy in occupation coding. Its data footprint covers 165 countries representing 99% of global GDP, with over 100 million de-duplicated global profiles.

Lightcast monetizes this data through three delivery channels: (1) subscription-based software products including the Analyst web platform, Career Coach, Widget Builder, and Alumni Pathways modules; (2) public REST APIs (Skills, Titles, Companies, JPA, Profiles, Core LMI, Occupational Earnings, IPEDS, Compensation) plus Data Shares via Snowflake, Databricks, Google BigQuery, Azure, and SFTP; and (3) professional services delivered by in-house data scientists and consultants. The company serves three primary customer segments—Enterprise (67 of the Fortune 100), Education (1,000+ institutions), and Government/Workforce Development (775+ organizations)—with secondary exposure to Healthcare, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Sales & Marketing, and Staffing verticals.

Since 2023, Lightcast has executed an aggressive acquisition-driven growth strategy under KKR ownership, absorbing Gazelle.ai (2023), eIMPACT (2024), Stratigens (2024), Rhetorik (2025), Skill Collective (2025), and Simply (2025), substantially expanding its UK/European footprint and adding skills-transformation consulting and data visualization capabilities. The company employs over 600 professionals globally and holds ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA, and TX RAMP certifications.

Name

Lightcast

Legal name

Lightcast, LLC

Website

https://lightcast.io

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Lightcast is a KKR-backed labor market intelligence company providing software, APIs, and consulting services to enterprises, educational institutions, and government agencies, covering 165 countries with over 18 billion compiled data points.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Labor Market Intelligence Software

NAICS

Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Solution Integration & MLOps Enablement (BPAEAAAJ)

Keywords

• Labor market intelligence
• Workforce analytics software
• Talent intelligence platform
• Skills taxonomy data
• Job postings analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Moscow

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Subscription-based Software Services: Annual subscription access to Lightcast Analyst software platform, providing interactive maps, graphs, and data exploration tools. Licenses are typically sold per seat or organization-wide with named user access.
2. Professional Services: Consulting services where Lightcast consultants and data scientists apply advanced labor market information to client questions, providing measurable strategies with clear roadmap for growth.
3. Career Coach & Widget Builder: Subscription-based career exploration and data visualization tools for educational institutions, hosted by Lightcast with implementation services.
4. Business Contact Data Products: Contact Products including API access to Profiles (Global and US - Names and Contact Info), providing business contact information, names, and related profile data for B2B lead generation and CRM enrichment.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Lightcast provides a global labor market intelligence platform built on more than 18 billion data points compiled over 25 years, including job postings, career profiles, and compensation data across 165+ countries. The company delivers its data through a web-based analytics application (Analyst), a portfolio of REST APIs (Skills, Titles, Companies, JPA, Profiles, Core LMI, Occupational Earnings, IPEDS, Compensation), cloud-based Data Shares via Snowflake/Databricks/BigQuery/Azure, and professional consulting services. Proprietary skills and occupation taxonomies along with machine learning classifiers (~90% accuracy) underpin all offerings, serving enterprise, education, and government customers.

Product overview

Lightcast provides a comprehensive labor market data platform with multiple delivery mechanisms: web-based software (Analyst, Career Coach, Widget Builder), API access (Skills, Titles, Companies, JPA, Profiles, Core LMI, Occupational Earnings, IPEDS, Compensation APIs), and cloud-based Data Shares via Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, and Azure. The platform covers 165+ countries representing 99% of world GDP, with over 18 billion labor market data points. Solutions serve Enterprise (workforce planning, talent analytics), Education (career guidance, alumni insights), Government (economic development), Healthcare, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Sales & Marketing, and Staffing sectors. The portfolio includes acquired brands eIMPACT (data visualization), Stratigens (talent intelligence), and Skill Collective (skills transformation consulting).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Lightcast Analyst Web-based analytics platform enabling users to explore labor market data through interactive maps and graphs, with access to job postings, career profiles, and compensation data across 165+ countries. Sold via annual subscription licensed per organization or seat. Used by enterprise, education, and government buyers for workforce intelligence and research.
• Lightcast APIs Suite of REST API endpoints providing programmatic access to Lightcast's labor market data, including Skills API, Titles API, Companies API, Job Postings API (JPA), Profiles API, Core LMI API, Occupational Earnings API, IPEDS API, and Compensation API. Rate-limited endpoints enable developers and enterprise data teams to integrate Lightcast data into custom applications.
• Data Share

Quantifiable outcome

• 300% increase in international data coverage from 41 to 165 countries
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration10 records

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered strategic and core.

• TallostrategicGTM or Marketing Partner · 20 May 2026Partnership where Lightcast provides Tallo access to over 2 million live job listings, powering the digital career platform for individuals aged 13-30. Tallo serves over 2 million users across all 50 U.S. states with Lightcast data supporting their Career Navigator and mobile app features.
• Opportunity@WorkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 January 2026Partnership to integrate STARs insights into Lightcast's workforce data software, promoting skills-first hiring in the US labor market. The new filter helps companies identify candidates without requiring a bachelor's degree, expanding opportunities for skilled workers with alternative training pathways. Integration implemented across Lightcast platforms starting March 2026.
• MetropolisIQstrategicTechnology or Integration · 17 November 2025Strategic partnership to integrate Lightcast's labor market data into MetropolisIQ's MIQ Site Select platform, enhancing AI-driven site selection decisions for real estate and business investment. Collaboration aims to improve accuracy of regional economic analysis amid dynamic economic environment.
• GuildstrategicStrategic or Co-development Partner · 21 October 2025Joint research partnership producing the Talent Resilience Index (TRI) to measure workforce mobility and adaptability in the U.S. labor market. Report highlights economic resilience implications of declining workforce mobility since 2016 amid disruptions from AI, demographics, and economic uncertainty.

Scale indicators8 records

Direct peers

• Revelio Labs: Revelio Labs provides workforce intelligence built on de-identified employee records and labor market data, competing head-to-head with Lightcast's talent analytics and labor market intelligence offerings for enterprise workforce planning and economic research buyers.
• TalentNeuron (Gartner): TalentNeuron (now part of Gartner) delivers talent intelligence and workforce planning analytics comparable to Lightcast Analyst, including supply/demand modeling, skills mapping, and location analytics for global enterprises - directly overlapping Lightcast's enterprise segment.
• LinkUp: LinkUp is a labor market data company that indexes job listings directly from employer websites rather than aggregators, providing a competing job-posting dataset used by economists, governments, and enterprises for market intelligence analogous to Lightcast's JPA dataset.
• Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI operates a talent intelligence platform built on a global skills graph, competing directly with Lightcast's skills taxonomy and APIs in talent acquisition, workforce planning, and skills-based hiring use cases for Fortune-level enterprises.

Broad incumbents

• LinkedIn (Microsoft): LinkedIn operates the largest professional network and publishes LinkedIn Economic Graph labor insights, competing with Lightcast in workforce analytics and talent intelligence at scale for enterprise and government buyers, with significantly broader scope than Lightcast's specialized data offering.
• Indeed (Recruit Holdings): Indeed, owned by Recruit Holdings, operates the world's largest job site and Hiring Lab research arm, producing labor market publications and workforce data that overlap with Lightcast's job posting analytics, employer branding, and economic research use cases.
• Workday: Workday provides HCM and workforce planning as part of a broader enterprise platform, including Illuminate data products and skills cloud capabilities that increasingly overlap with Lightcast's workforce intelligence and skills taxonomy offerings.

Emerging players

• Visier: Visier is a workforce analytics platform focused on people analytics for mid-market and enterprise customers, providing headcount, attrition, and skills-gap analytics that intersect with Lightcast's enterprise workforce planning value proposition.
• Crunchr: Crunchr is a European-headquartered people analytics platform providing workforce insights to multinational employers, competing with Lightcast in regional workforce analytics with strong overlap in skills-based planning use cases.

Others

• US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): The BLS publishes free authoritative US labor market statistics (CES, OES, JOLTS) that Lightcast complements and benchmarks against; as a data source and ecosystem participant, BLS sets the floor on price for certain workforce intelligence use cases and influences buyer expectations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/LightcastData
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/lightcastdata
• Instagraminstagram.com/LightcastData
• Facebookfacebook.com/LightcastData

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Subsidiaries4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A6 records

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lightcast