We Raised $32M from Bain Capital Ventures to Democratize Flexible Work

At this time four years ago, I would spend all day walking around various shopping malls and industrial parks around the Greater Bay Area, talking to hundreds of companies with “Hiring!” signs. While my co-founders, AJ Brustein and Jeremy Burton, were busy building the product in office, I focused on acquiring our first set of customers by going out in the field, knocking on doors of businesses looking for additional workers for the upcoming holiday season.

Talking with these businesses, what surprised me the most was that their hiring pain point was not just specific to busy seasons such as the holidays. They had challenges throughout the year. Moreover, most HR and Operations managers shared with me how inefficient and ineffective existing solutions, such as job boards and staffing agencies, were at helping them find workers. I walked away from each meeting with an even stronger conviction that what we were building at Wonolo could be transformational in solving these problems.  

Today, the need for Wonolo is greater than ever before.

Companies are facing an unprecedented labor shortage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of open positions in the U.S. surpassed the number of job seekers for the first time on record in 2018. For example, retailers and their warehouses distributing massive amounts of online orders are struggling to find more than 700,000 workers during the holidays.

At the same time, about 27 million Americans are still underemployed. This is a paradox. There is a significant pool of untapped workforce looking for extra work while companies are struggling to get their jobs filled! And traditional solutions continue failing to solve this problem. That’s where Wonolo comes in, providing the perfect solution to connect workers with companies in the most flexible and efficient way possible.

Wonolo has grown significantly over the past four years, scaling our business model in major markets across the country, building a growing community of 300,000+ Wonoloers, and thousands of Requestors who regard Wonolo as mission critical. However, the Wonolo vision doesn’t stop there. We believe in a world where anyone can get up in the morning and find work when they want it, and companies can get the help they need, any time they need it. We want to democratize work.

With this ambition, I am excited to announce that we have raised a $32 million Series C funding round, led by Bain Capital Ventures’ Jamison Hill, with participation from Sequoia Capital, DAG Ventures, Base10, AMN Healthcare, and Cendana Capital.

We will use our funding to expand our team — both in our two headquarters in San Francisco and Nashville, as well as in our satellite offices around the world — and accelerate our technology platform growth. Jamison and Bain Capital Ventures are providing us with the opportunity to put Wonolo’s technology into the hands of major Fortune 500 companies to help revolutionize the traditional staffing model and address the unmet needs of millions of American workers.

We are passionate about solving the underemployment crisis for Americans and eliminating the temporary staffing shortage for companies of all sizes. We could not be more grateful for our dedicated team, our community of hardworking Wonoloers, and our forward-thinking Requestors – the companies who trust our platform every day to address their unpredictable hiring needs.

Today is a proud day for Wonolo, and we could not do it without all of you. Thank you for your continued belief in our mission to make work flexible and fulfilling for everyone.