Remofirst Secures $25 Million in Funding

April 23, 2024 – Remofirst, a San Francisco-based employer-of-record provider, has closed a $25 million series A funding round. The round was led by Octopus Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm, with participation by existing investors QED, Mouro Capital and Counterpart Ventures. Remofirst says that the funds will go toward new products and services as well as to bring in key executives.
“In these tough economic times and slow VC deployment for bigger rounds, this additional funding is a huge milestone for Remofirst because it validates our vision for the future of global distributed teams and our superior solution that is affordable and easy to use,” Nurasyl Serik, co-founder and CEO of Remofirst. Mr. Serik is an immigrant from Kazakhstan and co-founder Volodymyr Fedoriv is an immigrant from Ukraine. Both recently appeared on Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 list this year.
As an employer of record, Remofirst enables clients to pay, manage and onboard full-time employees and contractors in more than 180 countries. Established in 2021, the company’s clients include Zodoc, the World Health Organization and Mastercard.
“The market for new VC investment is one of the toughest in a decade, and we’re proud that Remofirst stood out from the crowd because of our commitment to compliance and our attention to capital efficient operations,” said Mr. Serik. “We take the responsibility of employing international talent for our clients very seriously, and a part of that responsibility means operating with the future in mind and with a commitment to responsible growth.”
“We’re planning to use this capital to scale up our team with key hires to ensure we continue to provide the high-quality service our clients have come to expect from us,” Mr. Serik said. “It will also help us add to our existing services, making it even easier to manage a global workforce. Our approach has always been to democratize global hiring — making it affordable and accessible for companies of all sizes. We are focused on removing barriers, ensuring compliance, and offering transparent pricing. It’s about providing peace of mind to our clients, knowing they can expand their teams globally without unnecessary complexity or cost.”
In addition, Nicholas Sando from Octopus Ventures will be joining Remofirst’s board. “As more companies move operations globally, this funding will help Remofirst significantly expand their presence in international markets — such as the U.K. — offering their remote hiring solution to address a huge market need,” said Mr. Sando.
Investment Funding
Investors are pouring money into recruiting solutions businesses, especially those with a psychology and data science component. Here’s a look at some other recent funding deals secured by these companies from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:
Nursa, a per diem nursing recruiting platform, recently completed an $80 million series B funding round. The round was led by Drive Capital, a Columbus, OH-based venture capital firm. Joining the round were existing partners Pelion Venture Partners, a Salt Lake City, UT-based venture capital firm, and Kickstart Fund, a Cottonwood Heights, UT-based venture capital firm. Total funding at Salt Lake City-based Nursa is now $100 million. “Recruiting firms — even ones with technology — are severely limited in their ability to find specialized nurses with experience and credentials to fit their patient needs,” said Molly Bonakdarpour, general partner of Drive Capital. “Typically, these groups are limited to their existing networks, require contracts and can’t staff for true per diem, increasing unnecessary costs for providers.”
Candidate.fyi recently secured a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round. The company’s platform offers a candidate portal for candidates to receive information in their journey, pulse surveys to collect feedback from job candidates, the ability for job candidates to book meetings online and create profiles and an upcoming scheduling feature. Founded by brothers, Kyle and Chris Connors, with expertise derived from roles with Google and technical leadership positions, candidate.fyi integrates with existing workflows and over 40 applicant tracking systems to automate candidate preparation, scheduling, communication, and feedback. Some of its clients include Synthesia, Tropic, Yext, Thrive Market, and MariaDB.
San Francisco based Instawork, a platform for connecting businesses with skilled hourly workers, has raised $60 million in a series D funding round led by TCV. The round also included participation from new investors 9Yards Capital and Larry Fitzgerald Jr., as well as existing investors Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock. With this new funding, Instawork intends to accelerate investment in its AI-powered mobile app and platform, which connects over 4 million skilled hourly workers with tens of thousands of businesses. “We are excited to partner with TCV and our other new and existing investors to continue our mission of making work more flexible and rewarding for everyone,” said Sumir Meghani, co-founder and CEO of Instawork. “This funding will allow us to accelerate our investment in AI and machine learning, which will help us better match businesses with the skilled workers they need, and help workers find the shifts that fit their schedules and lives.”
HR software start-up Rippling has raised $500 million in a new funding round initially intended to help customers make payroll in the aftermath of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) collapse. The round, led by technology investor Greenoaks Capital, gave Rippling the same valuation of $11.25 billion it had clinched after its previous capital raise last year, the company said. Rippling announced in a March 17 blog post that it received a $500 million series E funding round. Putting the round together took less than three days and took place after the SVB collapse, according to the post. It also noted that it has moved its banking operations to JPMorgan Chase.
Related: WilsonHCG Secures $120 Million in Funding from 3i Group
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media