Instawork, a flexible staffing platform, has acquired Drafted, a network recruiting platform that helps businesses hire by leveraging referrals. The acquisition will enable Instawork to utilize Drafted's artificial intelligence and machine learning to help grow its pool of skilled hourly professionals.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Instawork completed a C round in July, raising $60 million in capital.

The Drafted platform will support Instawork’s recruiting and rewards program, and also provides tracking and management tools to streamline and drive efficiencies within the referral and hiring process.

“Network referrals are one of the best ways to find and hire qualified talent, and Drafted technology is helping Instawork take a giant leap forward in supporting the needs of American businesses looking to fill a record level of openings,” said Sumir Meghani, co-founder and CEO of Instawork. “The Drafted team’s expertise will enable us to accelerate this organic growth and use of technology, helping us to quickly scale our community of qualified professionals and further long-term satisfaction with both sides of our marketplace.”

Drafted’s entire team has joined Instawork as part of the acquisition. Drafted is no longer accepting new customers and its current product will sunset in the coming months.  

“I’m excited about this next leg of the journey, because Instawork is perfectly positioned as the hospitality and light-industrial sectors return to work in the new post-pandemic environment,” Drafted CEO Vinayak Ranade wrote in a blog post.

Founded in 2016, Instawork says it connects thousands of businesses and more than one million workers in the US. Targeted sectors include the food and beverage, hospitality, retail, and warehouse logistics industries in more than 25 US markets.

‍