Almost every American can relate to working an hourly, minimum wage job at one point in their lives. For some, this hourly gig may have been their first job as a teenager simply looking for extra cash. For others, hourly jobs are a sole source of income well into adulthood. In fact, research reports that 82.3 million hourly wage workers who are 16-years-old and older accounted for over half of all wage and salary workers in 2019.
SaaS recruitment startup HourWork caters to the millions of Americans who work hourly jobs. On Monday, the startup announced it pulled in $10 million in a preempted, oversubscribed Series A round led by Positive Sum.
The startup’s fresh funding round will go toward hiring for its customer success, sales and marketing teams. Its current employee headcount totals 30 people. There are three open positions currently available.
“Now was the time to raise additional capital due to the hyper-demand HourWork experienced in 2021. We need people to service the demand and also bring to market new products that expand into adjacent aspects of the problem we are solving,” Rob Snyder, HourWork co-founder and COO, told Built in via email.
HourWork partners with quick-serve restaurant (QSR) franchise owners to help them gain employees. Alongside its recruitment offerings, HourWork provides franchise owners with retention tactics that encourage employees to stay on board for longer. According to the company, HourWork works with over 5,000 franchise locations under big names such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Domino’s, Wendy’s and White Castle.
In the last twelve months, HourWork has seen a 3,000 percent year-over-year growth in its customer base.
“The pandemic uncovered a disproportionately negative effect on the lives of hourly employees as compared to the general public, as well as a massive talent shortage for employers,” HourWork CEO and co-founder Rahkeem Morris said in a statement. “With this new round of capital, we will continue to drive breakthrough applicant flow and retention rates for QSR franchisees while investing in other initiatives that will not only benefit the QSR industry, but will be transformative across multiple industries that employ hourly workers.”
