Brigad is a platform that connects hospitality and care businesses with qualified freelance professionals. The company recently announced that it has raised $30 million in a funding round to expand its services and reach.
The funding round was led by Israeli venture capital firm, Battery Ventures, and included participation from existing investors, such as LocalGlobe, Connect Ventures, and Cherry Ventures.
Brigad was founded in 2016 and operates in London, Paris, and Barcelona. The platform matches businesses with skilled and vetted workers, such as chefs, waiters, and nurses, on a temporary or freelance basis. This allows businesses to quickly and easily find staff to cover short-term gaps in their workforce, while also giving workers the flexibility to choose when and where they work.
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The funding will be used to help Brigad expand into new markets, increase the size of its team, and invest in its technology platform. The company plans to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve its matching algorithms and better understand the needs of its customers.
Overall, the investment highlights the growing demand for flexible work arrangements and the potential for technology to make it easier for businesses to find qualified workers. With the additional funding, Brigad is well-positioned to continue its growth and bring its services to more businesses and workers around the world.
The healthcare industry is a recent addition to Brigad, yet it already accounts for 25 percent of all missions. This percentage is even greater if just requests for employment opportunities from partner institutions are included.
On this front, Brigad competes with Mediflash, an additional French freelance marketplace for medical professionals. “We have a good relationship with them. We’ve talked to each other since the beginning and we’re not covering the same regions today,” Malbranche said.
Both the healthcare and hospitality businesses are experiencing talent shortages. According to those employed in these occupations, they are not treated well and are required to work long hours for poor pay. For this reason, many employees elect to become independent contractors.
This allows them to organize their calendar more precisely, make more cash, and establish new relationships with restaurants, caterers, and hospitals. “Working conditions are in need of improvement. “Unfortunately, the healthcare industry is hurt considerably more than the hospitality industry,” Malbranche stated.
If you speak with hospital employees, they will likely describe the vicious cycle of people resigning because they are overworked, which results in more work for everyone else, and leads to more people leaving. Brigad is a remedy for a problem that should not exist, but the issue persists.
“We have more or less the same growth rate for both industries. We grew by 2.5x between 2021 and 2022 across both verticals,” Malbranche said.
Historically, 10,000 groups have utilized Brigad. They offer one mission per week on average. When they publish a job opening, Brigad automatically sends this information to about a dozen individuals.
Only those who reside in the area and possess the required talents will receive the message. Additionally, the task should pay more than what freelancers are seeking.
Then, the first applicant who responds is matched with the company. Malbranche stated, “On average, talent receives one hundred missions per month.” Brigad charges a 20% commission on all transactions. In 2022, the startup has managed 200,000 missions.
With today’s fundraising round, the company intends to expand its marketplace to include additional businesses and freelancers. It desires to intensify its focus on its two industries in its two major markets, France and the United Kingdom.
If all goes well, Brigad may seek further finance in one or two years in order to grow into new markets. Now is the moment to recruit 100 individuals to expand its market presence.
