Human resources departments are growing more reliant on connected technology. And the HR tech industry continues to attract new venture capital dollars.

In one of the latest developments on this front, EdGE Networks has raised $4.5 million. Kalaari Capital led the Bengaluru, India-based company’s Series A round. Ventureast also participated.

EdGE Networks is a talent acquisition and workforce optimization solution provider. Its solutions are used by such companies as HCL, Virtusa, and Wipro (News - Alert).

The company will use some of its new funding to add value to its products with data science. It also will leverage those funds to expand from a geographic and vertical standpoint.

VC investments in the HR tech space have exceeded $839 million this year, with 89 deals worldwide, says Larocque. The company, which tracks the HR tech space, says that the big winners on this front include MoveGuides with $48 million in new funding, Namely with a $50 million infusion, Visier which garnered $45 million, and Lever which nabbed $40 million.

The HR tech companies attracting the most funding in the third quarter were in the talent acquisition, employee experience, and job boards and marketplaces categories, according to Larocque. Talent acquisition got 57 percent of the VC HR tech funds, it says, but that was down from 66 percent last year. Post-hire employee experience solutions providers collected 51 percent of the funds. And 21 percent went to job boards and marketplaces.

The HR tech tracker also noted the human capital management suites “are getting increased attention attention by investors betting on platforms vs. point solutions.”

A separate HR tech tracking firm, CBInsights, said this solution category attracted $2.2 billion in funding last year. The biggest deal involved payroll and benefits management software firm Ceridian, which got $150 million in private equity from Fidelity National Financial, CBInsights says.

In its 2017 Cloud HCM Suites Magic Quadrant, Gartner names Ceridian and ADP as Challengers. Leaders include Workday, SAP, Oracle, and Ultimate Software. Meta4, Info, Ramco Systems, Kronos (News - Alert), and Talentia Software are listed as Niche Players. And the Visionaries box is empty.

That said, there is a very long list of companies delivering both HCM suites and HR tech point solutions. Among them are Brightmatter, Glint, SmartRecruiters, Namely, Staffjoy, Shiftgig, Jobaline, Workjam, BeeKeeper, TextRecruit, PurpleSquirrel, WayUp, StoryHunter, Beamery, Teamable, Swingby, HiBob, WorkMarket, WorkToday, Mya, JobTeaser, EasyRecrue, Talent.io, CornerJob, Lorem, Gotit, Workey, ShortList, Canvas, Entelo, CultureAmp, Talla, Yello, Textio, Sense, Payfit, OnBoardIQ, and Side.