- Digital marketplace company Instawork announced recently it raised $60 million in Series C funding. These are the details.
Instawork — a leading digital marketplace company connecting local businesses with qualified professionals across the U.S. — announced recently that it raised $60 million in Series C funding. Including this round, the company has raised a total of $100 million.
Craft Ventures led the funding round with participation from Greylock, Corner Ventures, Four River Group, WndrCo, and Tilman Fertitta (owner of Landry’s and the Houston Rockets) alongside existing investors Benchmark, Spark Capital, GV, Burst Capital, and SV Angel. And Craft General Partner Jeff Fluhr will join Instawork’s board of directors.
Instawork’s business surged dramatically in the past 15 months as it adapted to the significant labor market effects of COVID-19, quickly expanding its marketplace to help address an imbalance of labor supply and demand. And Instawork currently supports a number of industries, including food and beverage, hospitality, retail, and warehouse logistics.
Now there are over one million Instawork Professionals (Pros) across the U.S., many of whom create a profile, find a shift that matches their skills and interests, and start working in under 24 hours. And shifts available via Instawork have grown 8x in less than two years with thousands of new Pros building profiles in its marketplace each day.
The new funding round will enable Instawork to continue rapidly expanding into new markets, job categories, and industries while also investing in more training and development initiatives to help hourly professionals advance their careers.
With Instawork, Pros can easily register to share unique work experiences and skills and access a variety of available short-term and long-term job opportunities that match their qualifications, interests, and schedules. And the platform provides insight into each opportunity, including workplace reviews and hourly pay — which averages $18 per hour. Businesses that tap into Instawork Pros range from nationally-recognized organizations like Marriott and Sun Basket to retailers seeing massive supply chain disruption and local hospitality businesses that need to staff service roles quickly. And these businesses are consistently matched with high quality, reliable Pros to fill available shifts and deliver valuable services.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our vision is to create the economic opportunities for local professionals and businesses that help everyone thrive. Balancing the demands of pandemic job recovery, security, and flexibility with the massive labor needs posed by a reopened economy has never been more important. We are proud that our marketplace has become the go-to solution to connect qualified professionals looking for work with the businesses that need them most, and we are grateful for the opportunity to invest more in our local communities to help them adapt to today’s evolving labor market and support broader economic recovery.”
— Sumir Meghani, co-founder and CEO of Instawork
“As vaccine distribution expands dramatically across the U.S., we are in the midst of the most rapid economic recovery in U.S. history. Every day we hear more news about businesses that can’t hire workers to meet the sharp rise in demand. Instawork has cracked the code for hiring flexible hourly workers: its seamless marketplace solves the problem that hospitality businesses, restaurants, warehouses, sports stadiums, and retail outlets have all been experiencing.”
— Jeff Fluhr, General Partner at Craft Ventures
