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OfferZen, a South Africa-based talent marketplace for software engineers, has closed €4 million in pre-Series B funding from Invenfin and AI Capital.
Philip Joubert, co-founder of OfferZen, published the following statement:
“I’m excited to announce that OfferZen has closed €4m in funding from some amazing investors. Here’s why we got funding and what’s next.
“2023 was one of the toughest years for tech companies in the last decade – global VC funding was at less than a third of its peak in 2021. As you might imagine, most of our customers are tech companies and we could see many of them were struggling. So in early 2023 we took a bold step and introduced a radical new business model.
“Instead of solely charging customers per hire, we also started offering an Unlimited subscription model that allowed customers to make unlimited hires for a fixed fee. It was easy to budget for, competitively priced and we hoped it would relieve some of the pressure our customers were feeling.
“It’s always scary making a big change to your business, but fortunately Unlimited worked. A significant number of our customers have moved to the subscription model over the last year and, off the back of these results, we started getting ready to raise our next funding round.
“We knew fundraising was going to be tough for us – our timing of the market wasn’t exactly ideal. Yes, our new subscription model was working and showing rapid growth. But we’re also selling recruitment services at a time when many companies in the tech industry are doing layoffs.
“Despite these conditions, we managed to raise €4m from two incredible investors who share our long-term vision. The first is Invenfin, with partners Peter van der Zee and Theo van den Berg (early Bolt investors). The second is AI Capital, whose partners include:
Roger Grobler: Founder of multiple tech and insurance companies
Nic Kohler: Former CEO of Hollard insurance
Willem Roos: Founder of Outsurance and former CEO of Rain Telco
Michael Jordaan: Former CEO of FNB and founder of Montegray Capital
“We couldn’t be more excited to partner with investors that bring so much experience. Their support and capital investment will help us make a lot of product improvements over the coming months.
“We’re entering 2024 with two bits of exciting news. One is about our leadership and one is about the product.
“After being CEO for three years, I’ve officially handed over the reins to Matt Beck. Matt first joined OfferZen as the VP of Marketing in 2021 and has not only done a great job leading that team, but also levelling up the whole business for scale. He loves our brand and has been a great champion of our values, so I’m glad to be able to call him my new boss.
“As for me, I’ll get back to what I do best: Looking at the big picture and helping OfferZen stay close to the tech community’s needs.
“This leads to the second bit of news.
“We launched OfferZen with a model that flips the traditional recruitment approach – instead of developers applying to companies, companies reach out to developers. This has served our customers well so far: We’ve helped more than 6000 software developers find great job opportunities.
“But this approach has always had a few limitations - some developers wanted to be more proactive about their job search and show interest in specific companies. Similarly, many companies want to know which candidates are specifically interested in them. That’s why we’re launching a new feature that constitutes the biggest update to OfferZen yet.
“The new feature allows developers to browse the jobs that companies are hiring for on OfferZen, see AI recommendations based on their preferences, and apply directly using their existing OfferZen profile. Companies will receive the highest-quality inbound applicants from any channel and, eventually, have those candidates pre-categorised with AI based on how well they match the job. Expect more details and a beta launch during Q1 2024.”
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