Fountain, the recruiting platform for gig and hourly workers, announced the closing of a $23 million Series B funding round led by DCM, with participation from 51job and existing investors Origin Ventures, Uncork Capital, and others. This brings the company’s total fundraising to $34 million. As part of the financing, DCM co-founder David Chao will join Fountain’s Board of Directors, and DCM partner Kyle Lui will join as Board Observer.
The vast majority of the workforce are shift-based or hourly workers. In fact, 85% of the global workforce, or nearly 2.7 billion people, are paid hourly, and in the U.S. alone, there are more than 80 million hourly workers. This segment of the workforce is constantly evolving due to factors like low unemployment, legislation, and automation, and it’s projected that nearly one-third of today’s work will be automated by 2030.
Additionally, many of these workers hold more than one job, often supplementing a primary role with other hourly or gig work. Unsurprisingly, the gig and freelance economy is now growing three times faster than the rest of the workforce and will make up 43% of the workforce by 2020.
“It’s clear the way people work is changing, but the processes companies use to hire hourly workers aren’t,” says Keith Ryu, CEO and co-founder of Fountain. “Recruiting workers from this group is fundamentally different than recruiting for your corporate roles. 90% of this population aren’t on LinkedIn, and 40% are unresponsive after completing an application. Many of these employees are holding down two or three jobs and need an easy, automated and mobile way to apply and interview for a new job.”
Founded in 2015 during the initial height of the gig economy, Fountain now processes more than 1 million applications to fill 150,000 hourly and gig positions every month for its customers, including Taco Bell franchisee Golden Gate Bell, Chick-fil-A, Lime, Safeway, and more. Since its inception, Fountain has placed more than four million jobs.
Fountain’s customers leverage its technology to streamline the entire candidate recruitment process, from sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, processing background checks, SMS communications, to document signing and onboarding.
“As the unrivaled leader in gig hiring and recruiting, Fountain is already reshaping the way billions of job seekers interact with employers,” says David Chao, co-founder & partner at DCM. “Fountain has been exceptionally capital efficient and has best-in-class customer retention,” adds Kyle Lui, partner at DCM.
Fountain will invest this latest round of funding in R&D to accelerate product development for existing customers as well as expand its reach across businesses within the restaurant and hospitality industry.
“We’ve had immense success to date, but we’re far more excited about our future,” adds Ryu. “Our team is thrilled to have the additional resources to continue helping our customers fill their talent needs, and further our mission of opening opportunities for the global workforce.”
