Talent Platform Shiftsmart Raises $95 Million

December 6, 2021 – Talent platform Shiftsmart has raised $95 million in a Series B funding round for its workforce management software that matches hourly workers with open shifts across a variety of industry verticals and roles. D1 Capital Partners led the round with participation from Imaginary Ventures, Spieker Partners and S12F, among others. Since forming in 2015, the company has amassed a network of over 500,000 workers in over 50 countries who have flexibility and control over where they work, how much they work and how fast they can get paid, while employers can customize their staffing needs and reduce turnover.

“On the demand side there were already different pieces in place, but on the supply side — the workers — was what we thought was the innovation,” Aakash Kumar, founder and CEO of Shiftsmart, told TechCrunch. “We are making it easy so you can create a profile, flip an app and work when you want. The gig economy was point-to-point logistics, but the ability to control your own schedule is something we are going to extend forward.”

Jeff Leventhal, managing partner at S12F, said he believes in the empowerment of workers and how they are treated and thought Shiftsmart’s approach not only gave workers flexibility in their day, but also a lot of opportunity to work for different companies and in different roles. The days of shift work that involve “coming in at 2 p.m. or you are fired, is a dated concept,” he said.

“One of the hard things to get right is user experience, but Shiftsmart is level-setting the world,” he added. “The company gets in uniquely correctly. Marketplaces are hard to build and get working, but Shiftsmart’s technology is meant to be flexible for both the employer and employee.”

Shiftsmart touts a customer list that includes Circle K, Humana, Deloitte, Airbnb, and the Small Business Administration. The company previously raised venture capital about three years ago, but as revenue continued to double or triple each year, Mr. Kumar said it became time to look at another round, especially in the wake of employers facing labor shortages.

“We help employers expand the total size of their market by breaking the work down to the shift level,” he added. “Your odds of finding someone to do a three-hour shift a few times a week will be a lot higher than finding someone willing to sign up for 40 hours per week and get paid every two weeks.”

Shiftsmart says that the new funding will go into scaling its verticals, which include audits and contracts, retail and global logistics and into launching new verticals like healthcare. The company will also do additional hiring. It has 60 employees currently, which is up from about 30 people a year ago.

With all of that competition, as well as companies that manage hourly workers in-house, Mr. Kumar said Shiftsmart’s differentiator was how it partners with its customers, which can use the platform with Shiftsmart’s labor force or with its own.

“It’s an exciting time for the business, and the global labor shortage has made it critical,” Mr. Kumar said. “Our main focus is how to scale up operations to be able to absorb demand and create more unique experiences for workers as we learn more about their behaviors.”

Investment Funding

Here’s a look at some other recent funding deals secured by these companies from the Hunt Scanlon Media archives:

Hirewell, a Chicago-based talent acquisition firm, secured an investment of $21 million from Prytek, a global investment firm with expertise in integrating global services firms with cutting-edge technologies. Prytek will provide capital to enable Hirewell to accelerate its organic growth and integrate technology into its managed recruiting services. As part of this investment, Hirewell will acquire ICV, a Tel Aviv-based software company. “The talent acquisition space has evolved significantly over the past ten years, but technology has yet to truly disrupt the industry,” said Matt Massucci, founder and CEO of Hirewell. “Recruiters increasingly rely on multiple platforms, most of which don’t integrate or have limited functionality, and some of which actually compete with the recruiters they claim to support. The ability to combine best-in-class recruiters with cutting-edge technology will equip us to be the ideal recruiting partner for companies that are serious about finding top talent. We are thrilled to partner with Prytek to take that step and continue delivering powerful results to our clients.”

Worksome recently closed a $13 million Series A funding round for its freelance talent platform — after racking up 10x growth in revenue since January 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a remote working boom. Founded in 2017, Worksome is an enterprise platform that connects companies with freelancers looking for professional roles. The company helps medium and large companies, working with many freelancers at a time, filling vacancies within teams rather than assisting companies in outsourcing projects. According to Worksome CEO and co-founder Morten Petersen, most enterprises use managed service providers (MSPs) to manage and pay external workers. He said that they use “outdated technology that is not built for managing fluid workforces to handle complex compliance processes around hiring and managing freelance workforces.”

SeekOut, the AI-powered talent 360 platform, has received $65 million in series B funding led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from existing investors Madrona Venture Group and Mayfield. This capital raise brings SeekOut’s total funding to $73 million. This funding round values SeekOut at close to half a billion dollars. SeekOut’s growth and expansion has been driven by the critical role it plays in empowering talent acquisition teams to recruit hard-to-find and diverse talent. SeekOut has consistently received high scores and strong reviews in analyst and customer assessments.

GoodJob, a platform that aims to use psychology and data science to match workers with jobs, recently raised $3 million to increase marketing and sales efforts in major markets across the U.S. “GoodJob’s solution is ideal for today’s market,” said Stephen D. Johnston, CEO of GoodJob. “Prior to an interview and without introducing bias, employers can quickly assess a candidate’s fit on the front end of the hiring process,” said Mr. Johnston. “This approach allows companies to spend time only on candidates who have a high probability of success, which significantly impacts hiring efficiency, especially as companies move to no-touch hiring practices.”

Turing.com, which describes itself as an automated platform that enables companies to use and manage remote software developers, has assembled $32 million Series B funding. The capitalization round was led by $3.3 billion fund WestBridge Capital. The round includes a number of high-profile investors, including Foundation Capital, which led Turing’s seed round. Altair Capital, Mindset Ventures, Frontier Ventures and Gaingels also participated in the Series B round. Driven by the massive global shift to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Turing taps into a global pool of developers to help companies hire in markets such as the San Francisco Bay Area and New York, where it has been difficult and expensive to hire and retain software engineers.

The Mom Project, a talent marketplace, closed a $25 million series B funding round, bringing total funding at the Chicago-based company to $36 million. The Mom Project aims to connect women, including mothers, with employment opportunities. Its platform has amassed more than 275,000 users and more than 2,000 companies, including brands like Apple, Nike, Gap and BP. “Together we’ve proven that hiring, retaining and supporting moms and caregivers isn’t just a nice thing to do — it’s great for business,” said Allison Robinson, founder and CEO. “We’re in a unique moment in time where companies are embracing flexible work and prioritizing inclusion, and are excited to rapidly accelerate our efforts to unlock the potential of moms in the workplace. Our latest round of funding will help expand our Enterprise product suite, build out our mom community engagement strategy and engage with more small business customers.”