BrightHire announced a $12.5 million Series A round of venture capital for its digital interview tech. This brings its total raised to $15.5 million.
With a message focused on producing more equitable hiring decisions, Brighthire enters the crowded field of digital interviewing and assessment. Solutions leveraging video, AI, NLP, machine learning, and modern assessments like ModernHire, HireVue, Xor, Harver, are actively in market and supporting businesses of all sizes.
$1.8 billion has been invested globally in recruiting technology since January 2020. Subscribe to WorkTech to get the latest updates on recruiting and HR tech trends and global work tech VC investments.
Source: BrightHire Raises $12.5m Series A from Index Ventures and Talent Thought Leaders – BrightHire
Denmark-based Worksome raised a USD $13 million Series A round of venture capital for its freelancer sourcing and hiring app. This brings its total raised to $18.9 million.
The company was born in Copenhagen by a senior X-Google team to provide medium and large businesses with a much more efficient solution to manage and pay their external workforce. Worksome promises a system that allows clients to build talent pools, compliantly pay/contract all types of workers, and invite their preferred supplier list to submit candidates. They boast a freelancer marketplace with more than 30,000 “vetted” freelancers.
Worksome is attempting to cover the end-to-end spectrum of hiring and managing the independent workforce from sourcing talent by providing it via a job board marketplace and intake from third-party sources to managing contractor payment and compliance. A freelancer platform is dependent on being source agnostic and accepting talent from myriad sources and platforms. The decision to be a source of talent, with its own marketplace, may cause trouble for both Worksome and its clients if external sources of talent refuse to submit through the platform to avoid the risk of seeding a competitive source. It’s a potential conflict of interest that most hiring platforms avoid.
Worksome plans to focus its efforts with the support of the new funding on growth in the USA. Independent workforce trends have been growing rapidly since the early 2000s, and like many trends, the return to work and the workplace post-COVID has accelerated this. The independent workforce, which includes freelancers, contractors, consultants, agencies, and gig workers, has grown from 16 million in 2011 to more than 38 million in 2020 a year in which this segment of the workforce generated $1.7 trillion in revenue or 5.7% of the US GDP according to MBO Partners. 48% of the US private workforce has worked independently, and this segment is growing three times faster than the rate of overall employment. As we’ve seen in the recovery of every economic downturn since the late 80s, employers embrace independent workers, hedging their bets during times of uncertainty.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech during 2021 Q1 alone. Get WorkTech’s free report and analysis here.
Source: Freelance Talent Platform Worksome Attracts $13m USD Investment To Fund Growth in the US
Remember Bump, the iPhone app from 2011 that allowed users to bump phones together and share contact info, pictures, and files? It promised to make the business card obsolete and change the way we network and share information in the physical world. It was the #8 iPhone app globally in 2011 but was discontinued by 2013.
Linq raised a $2.5 million Seed round of venture capital and is making another run at how we network and share information across smartphones, this time via QR codes and near field communication (NFC) technology in phone accessories and bracelets.
Is it a solution looking for a problem or the next big thing in networking? Time will tell.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech during 2021 Q1 alone. Get WorkTech’s free report and analysis here.
Source: Networking Startup, Linq, Completes $2.5 Million Seed Round Fundraise
YellowBird announced a $1.7 million Seed round of venture capital for its job board marketplace focused on freelance risk and environmental, health, and safety (EHS) professionals .
As the independent workforce trends continue to gain traction we expect to see more marketplaces and solutions focused on hiring and managing this category of the workforce.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech during 2021 Q1 alone. Get WorkTech’s free report and analysis here.
Source: YellowBird Prepares to Soar – Oversubscribed to Secure $1.7 Million
France-based Malt announced a USD $97 million Series C round of venture capital funding for its job board marketplace focused on tech freelancers.
Independent workforce trends have been growing rapidly since the early 2000s, and like many trends, the return to work and the workplace post-COVID has accelerated this. The independent workforce, which includes freelancers, contractors, consultants, agencies, and gig workers, continues to grow globally and organically. As we’ve seen in the recovery of every economic downturn since the late 80s, employers embrace independent workers, hedging their bets during times of uncertainty.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech during 2021 Q1 alone. Get WorkTech’s free report and analysis here.
India-based Apna announced a USD $70 million Series B round of venture capital for its professional network and job board marketplace. This brings its total raised to $93.5 million. Apna also announced a new valuation of $570 million as a part of its announcement.
Apna claims to have grown 50X in the last 12 months, with more than 10 million candidates and 100,000+ employers currently relying on the platform. Apna will use the funds to strengthen its presence in existing cities and expand pan-India over the next 6 months to help restart India’s economy as it recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The team plans to double down on their edtech platform for skilling by continuing to invest in hiring exceptional talent and building world class engineering and product capabilities. Additionally, Apna plans to expand to high potential international markets such as Southeast Asia and the United States in the coming year.
$2.7 billion was invested globally in work tech startups during Q1 2021 alone. Subscribe to WorkTech to get the latest updates on recruiting and HR tech trends and global work tech VC investments.
Source: Apna Raises $70M in Series B Funding from Insight Partners & Tiger Global at $570 million valuation