Jobandtalent job search continues to be successful. This reference of the Spanish startup ecosystem has just closed a new one worth 440 million euros, thus raising its valuation to 2,070 million euros. In this case the Swedish fund Kinnevik, investor in Klarna, has led the round together with Softbank and new investors, contributing 101.5 million euros.
In the first months of the year, Jobandtalent had already closed two other rounds, worth €100M and €88M, led by their previous investors Seek, Atomico, Kibo, DN Capital, Quadrille, FJ Labs, joined by French technology fund Infravia, as well as technology investment fund SoftBank Vision Fund.
With this operation, the startup joins other Spanish companies in the status of (valuation greater than $1,000M), such as Devo, Flyware, Wallbox, Cabify, Copado and Letgo.
Jobandtalent closes a new round of financing with international funds
With this funding, the Madrid startup has raised more than 750 million euros just over a decade after its launchwhich has helped it make a difference in the massive and growing market for temporary work and with increasing momentum as more sectors and processes go digital.
John Urdiales, “We are delighted that Kinnevik is supporting us in the next stage of our journey. Kinnevik has an impressive track record of building successful and sustainable global businesses, and he shares our long-term vision and ambition to make a real impact on the lives of workers around the world.”
According to a statement issued by Kinnevik, the funding will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion in key markets such as the United Statessignificantly increase the size of its technology and sales teams over the next two years, and add key executive functions.
The company currently operates in Spain, Germany, Sweden, Mexico and Colombia, and according to Jobandtalent has helped more than 100,000 workers to get temporary jobs so far in 2021while more than 1,300 employers are registered on its platform to “manage a large part of their workforce on a recurring basis”including companies such as XPO, Santander, Bayer, Huawei, eBay and among many more.
Jobandtalent assured that the number of workers looking for temporary work on its platform doubles every year, and unsurprisingly, the pandemic has further fueled the platform’s adoption. According to Kinnevik, Jobandtalent grows 130% annually and has a profitable EBITDA.
Jobandtalent financing and international expansion
This quest for international growth is not new. In the previous round of financing, at the beginning of the year, Juan Urdiales had explained that “We will continue to expand in Europe and consider some additional opportunities (United States and some Latin American countries)”while its main markets continue to be Spain and the United Kingdom, with logistics, last mile, storage and transport as its main sectors.
In addition, the director assured that “The Covid pandemic has accelerated the transformation of many industries. We have seen more adoption of new technology in the last nine months than in the last five years. The workforce supply market is undergoing a major transformation that will accelerate in the coming years, moving from traditional physical structures to data-driven platforms that manage to improve the experience of both workers and employers.”
After a decade of existence, Jobandtalent has gone through a series of changes, but always with the aim of using technology to streamline the contracting business in temporary jobs, refining the tools to meet the needs of employers managing a large temporary workforce.
The origins of Jobandatalent
Felipe Navío, Felix Ruiz and Juan Urdiales held the first talks on the labor market in 2008, when Felipe Navío was working at Tuenti and a few months later he sold his first startup, the Pluscuperfecto online clothing store. “I tried to get capital for Pluscuperfecto, but I realized that it was not an attractive business for investors,” explained Urdiales in 2015. “One day I talked to Felipe about how difficult it was for some people to find work and how we could make it more easy, and those first conversations were the origin of Jobandtalent».
Felipe soon left Tuenti and the co-founder of this, Adeyemi Ajao, helped him build the foundation of the company. Ajao was about to start an MBA at Stanford several months before he started, so he decided to help out. «He did not invest capital in the company, but he helped us a lot with fundraising and in the selection of personnel». Urdiales was a good friend of the co-founders of Tuenti Adeyemi Ajao, Felix Ruíz and Zaryn Dentzel, and there is no doubt that this close relationship helped the startup in its origins.
When asked about the founding team of the company, Urdiales mentioned himself, Felipe Navío, Adeyemi, Tabi Vicuña, Pablo Gómez-Ballesteros and Alberto Mateos. The goal remains the same as then: to make the process of receiving relevant job offers easier for the user, even for those who find the right job without much effort.
2016 layoffs
jobandtalent.com going from 350 to 230 employees, after an adjustment that began in September and ended last week.
The startup justified the layoffs by the need to achieve profitability in the shortest possible time, under pressure from investors who prefer to obtain a return on their investments before sacrificing it to platform growth, sources from the company itself reported.
Most of those laid off were technical staff and programming engineers, who had a fixed contract. Many of them had been recruited from other firms. The bulk of departures occurred in Spain, where the firm has its headquarters (Madrid).
The downsizing of the workforce began in September 2016, coinciding with the business model change from the typical traditional website of a temporary employment company to a firm specializing in low-skilled jobs (hospitality, drivers, etc.), which works through the app.
“It was a mistake and I am responsible. The growth was greater than we should have had, but the situation was also very concrete, of brutal competition and a change of model»recognized Juan Urdiales, co-founder of the company,
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