What Kona Search does

KonaSearch (founded 2011) builds a Salesforce-native search and data access platform targeted primarily at staffing and recruiting firms, with secondary use in higher education and custom enterprise deployments. The core product, Kona Search, combines a proprietary deep search engine with web-search architecture and SQL-based query capabilities to index and search every field, object, attachment, and external data source (SharePoint, Box, Google Drive, email) within a Salesforce environment. Add-on modules extend the platform: Kona Match uses generative AI for object-to-object matching (e.g., jobs to candidates), Kona Scholar delivers search and reporting for higher education, Kona Parse provides GenAI-powered resume parsing (launched May 2024), and Kona Scale enables deployments handling hundreds of millions of records with sharded permissioning and cross-collection JOINs. The company claims 10,000+ customers and roughly 1,000 organizations running natively on Salesforce, with reported outcomes of 200% faster search and 170% recruiter productivity gains.

Revenue is generated through annual SaaS subscriptions distributed primarily via the Salesforce AppExchange marketplace (self-serve) and direct enterprise sales, with quote-based custom pricing tied to record volume and feature requirements. The go-to-market blends product-led growth (self-serve trial, AppExchange listing) with field sales targeting large staffing firms, healthcare/pharma, and higher education. The company holds AppExchange Security Certification and maintains offices in Boston and Tokyo. In September 2024, Bullhorn (a top-10 Salesforce ISV and the largest Salesforce partner in the recruitment industry) acquired KonaSearch; prior to that, the company was a portfolio company of BasisTech. The acquisition is positioned to integrate Kona's AI-driven search and matching into Bullhorn's staffing/recruiting CRM and ATS ecosystem, suggesting future distribution scale and tighter vertical focus.

Name

Kona Search

Legal name

KonaSearch LLC

Website

https://konasearch.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2011

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

KonaSearch builds a Salesforce-native deep search and AI-matching platform primarily for staffing and recruiting firms, with secondary use in higher education. The company was acquired by Bullhorn in September 2024 and serves 10,000+ customers globally.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Enterprise Search Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Web Search Portals, Libraries, Archives, and Other Information Services (519)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Enterprise Search, Indexing & Content Discovery (HDAEAGAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Meta-Search & Search Aggregators (BPAMAAAC), Q&A and Knowledge Discovery Platforms (BPAMAAAF)

Keywords

• Salesforce search platform
• Enterprise search software
• Candidate matching software
• Resume parsing AI
• Recruiting technology tools

Headquarters

HQ city

Cambridge

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription: Annual or monthly subscription-based pricing model for access to the KonaSearch deep search platform on Salesforce AppExchange, with tiered plans based on usage volume and feature access.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

KonaSearch develops a native Salesforce search platform that queries every field, object, and related record across Salesforce environments. It combines web-search architecture with SQL-based structured query capabilities and generative AI to power candidate matching, resume parsing, and cross-system enterprise search for staffing, recruiting, and higher education customers.

Product overview

Kona Search offers a platform-plus-modules architecture built natively on Salesforce. The core product, Kona Search, provides enterprise-grade deep search across Salesforce objects, fields, attachments, and external data sources with scale up to billions of records. Add-on modules extend the platform: Kona Match uses generative AI for intelligent candidate-to-job matching; Kona Scholar delivers specialized search and reporting for higher education; Kona Parse (launched May 2024) provides GenAI-powered resume parsing; and Kona Scale enables massive-scale deployments with hundreds of millions of records. All products share the same underlying search engine architecture with support for multi-object queries, faceted search, and automation capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Kona Search: Advanced Salesforce search platform providing read-your-mind accurate, scale-agnostic search for Salesforce.
• Kona Match
• Kona Scholar
• Kona Talent

Products and services

• Kona Search Core search platform providing read-your-mind accurate, scale-agnostic, same-day deployment search for Salesforce. Queries every field and object including child/parent objects, searches files, ZIPs, and images, and can search across external data sources including SharePoint, Google Docs, email servers, and websites. Supports up to billions of records.
• Kona Match Generative AI-based matching module that enables direct matches from any Salesforce object to any other. Users can find candidates or records without leaving the object record in a single click, analyzing job history, education, skills, resumes, CVs, and cover letters across all databases.
• Kona Scholar Search and reporting solution for higher education institutions built on the Kona Search platform. Provides custom filters, facets, and automation capabilities that enable academic advisors to find student groups and build reports anywhere in Salesforce or connected systems, reportedly boosting appointments by 165%.
• Kona Parse Resume parsing module launched in May 2024 that uses GenAI technology to create or update Salesforce records from resume content, extracting personal information, education history, job history, and skills. Currently supports English resumes with U.S. addresses only.
• Kona Scale Scaling module that enables all Kona products to support Salesforce environments with hundreds of millions of records and large query volumes. Features include sharded permissioning for up to 42x performance improvement and cross-collection JOINs for complex queries.
• Kona Talent Candidate search and match solution for staffing and recruiting firms, providing AI-powered search across candidate databases with job description matching capabilities.

Quantifiable outcome

• 200% faster search compared to standard Salesforce search
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability10 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• BullhorncoreOthers · 1 January 2024Bullhorn, a leading cloud computing company for the staffing and recruiting industry, acquired KonaSearch to enhance search capabilities within Bullhorn's CRM and ATS ecosystem. This acquisition establishes Bullhorn as the parent company of KonaSearch, integrating the search technology into Bullhorn's staffing-focused product portfolio.
• SalesforcecoreTechnology or IntegrationKonaSearch is a certified partner and AppExchange vendor on Salesforce's platform. The integration provides deep native search capabilities across Salesforce objects, data models, and workflows, enabling mutual customers to enhance their Salesforce deployment with advanced search functionality.
• HelpStoneminorGTM or Marketing PartnerHelpStone partnership provides joint go-to-market opportunities in the staffing technology space, with coordinated marketing and sales alignment for mutual customers seeking integrated recruiting solutions.
• CloudsquareminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorCloudsquare serves as a consulting and implementation partner, helping to resell and deploy KonaSearch solutions to staffing and recruiting organizations seeking Salesforce search enhancement.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Sinequa: Sinequa is an enterprise search and analytics vendor serving large, regulated organizations. KonaSearch's VP of Sales previously led North American channel sales at Sinequa, and the two compete for AI-augmented search deals across enterprise data estates.
• Coveo: Coveo is an AI-powered enterprise search and relevance platform that unifies content across systems including Salesforce. It competes most directly with KonaSearch in cross-source, AI-augmented search for enterprise knowledge.
• Algolia: Algolia provides AI search and discovery APIs used by developers and enterprises. While Algolia skews toward customer-facing search, its AI-driven relevance and personalization capabilities compete with KonaSearch's deep search engine for high-volume use cases.
• Lucidworks: Lucidworks is an enterprise search and discovery platform built on open-source search technologies. KonaSearch's CEO co-founded Attivio, whose assets were absorbed by Lucidworks, making it a closely related peer in enterprise search.

Emerging players

• RChilli: RChilli is a resume parsing and data enrichment provider integrated with Salesforce and major ATS platforms. It competes directly with Kona Parse for AI-based resume extraction within the Salesforce ecosystem.
• Eightfold AI: Eightfold AI provides AI-driven talent intelligence and matching for recruiting. It overlaps with Kona Match and Kona Parse in candidate-to-job matching within the staffing and recruiting vertical.
• Glean: Glean is an AI-powered enterprise search assistant that indexes across SaaS apps including Salesforce, Google Workspace, and Microsoft 365. It overlaps with KonaSearch's federated search and AI matching ambitions and is emerging as a strong competitor in workplace AI search.
• Sovren: Sovren (acquired by PeopleFluent/MRINetwork) provides AI resume parsing and matching technology for staffing firms. It is an emerging competitor in the same candidate-parsing and matching workflow KonaParse and Kona Match serve on Salesforce.

Broad incumbents

• Elastic: Elastic is a broad search and observability platform that powers enterprise search, logs, and security analytics. As a foundation technology often used behind enterprise search deployments, it is a broad incumbent that competes architecturally with KonaSearch's engine.
• Salesforce Einstein Search: Salesforce Einstein delivers native AI-powered search, predictions, and recommendations inside Salesforce. As the platform owner, it is the broadest incumbent and the most important competitive threat to KonaSearch's AppExchange search position.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/konasearch
• YouTubeyoutube.com/konasearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/showcase/konasearch

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles7 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about Kona Search