zenjob is a Berlin-based platform that targets students looking for side jobs in sectors such as retail, logistics and catering by connecting them with companies in need of temporary labour. It has closed a funding round from the Series D of 50 million dollars, and 2 years ago since its round of Serie C of 30 million dollars.
As with other 'modern staffing agencies', zenjob directly employ temporary workers, taking care of the associated administration (such as payment and administrative functions) to further simplify the process. It also makes a commitment to pay half of their salary within 72 hours of a full shift, which could speed up remittances compared to a traditional agency.
On the other hand, companies sign a contract with zenjob and they can “reserve” temporary staff based on the workload needed, including short-term and long-term.
zenjob it works with "some of the largest companies" in the delivery, retail, logistics, e-commerce, catering, and service industries, but does not disclose the names of the clients.
Currently, more than 2.500 companies, in more than 10.000 locations in its two active European markets, are registered on its platform to obtain temporary jobs on demand, with more than 40.000 workers using the platform each month to book complementary jobs.
According to the startup, founded in 2015, to date it has produced more than 1 million jobs in Germany and the Netherlands.
The increase in Series D is led by Aragón with the participation of all existing investors from zenjob, including Acton Capital, Atlantic Labs, Forestay and Axa Venture Partners.
The new round is earmarked for expansion within Europe, including the UK market, where it plans to enter shortly this summer, and for product development, including new data-driven automation features it says are in the works. process to meet your expanding customer base needs, for example by supporting new categories of work.
“We are launching zenjob in the UK this year and we continue our investment in new European markets. We are also growing our operations in Germany and the Netherlands,” they say, adding: “We are growing our technology team and will invest heavily in scale and new automation features on our platform.”
"Due to the high demand, we will expand our offers in knowledge jobs and office jobs."
zenjob competes with a growing number of platforms that focus on technology to find temporary jobs, such as CornerJob y Job Today, based in Luxembourg.
Gig platform Uber has also been eyeing the space: It launched a job center for UK drivers in 2020 as ride demand took a hit during the pandemic lockdowns; and a shift-finding app, called Uber Works, in the US in 2019.
In the European Union, new regulations are meant to tackle "fake" self-employment on relationship platforms, through a pan-European legal framework that will set minimum standards for platform workers. This could accelerate demand for agency-style temporary staffing platforms by funneling labor demand online: applying for labor through staffing brokers who employ them directly, allowing the platforms themselves to avoid having to hire to thousands of casual workers.
In the competitive landscape, zenjob argues that technology will be the biggest differentiator when it comes to the workforce market, job mix and platforms.
“When you look at the market, we only scratch the surface when it comes to using technology to handle the tasks that make job and staffing tedious and time-consuming,” he says. “That is why we focus a lot on the internal technological development of our platform and all the required processes. We currently have approximately 75% fully automated processes and our goal is to exceed 95% in the near future.”
“Our model works because our technological approach allows us to offer a very fast service with high-quality staff (thanks to the high degree of automation) to the companies we work with. And we can offer high fill rates and reliable staff, because the other half of our business is focused exclusively on providing the best experience and benefits to our talent. We pay above market rates for the jobs we offer and we care a lot about the experience and satisfaction among the 40.000+ people who currently use our app to book jobs at any time of the day.”
zenjob he also argues that there is still massive growth to be exploited, pointing to Germany as an example, where he says more than 95% of staffing is still done primarily in person.
"So we're competing with big companies that are approaching job allocation and staffing in a very traditional way," he adds. “Our approach is 100% digital and we are always working to improve the benefits we can offer to people who book jobs through us: Fast payments, 24/7 opportunity to book jobs.”
