TaskUs, an outsourcing firm for tech startups, raises $15M from private equity fund

TaskUs founders Bryce Maddock and Jasper Weir.

TaskUs, an outsourcing company servicing tech startups, announced today it raised US$15 million in series A funding from Navegar, a Philippines-based private equity fund.

Most people probably haven’t heard of TaskUs, but it’s the secret weapon that a chunk of Silicon Valley has used for years.

Founded in 2008, TaskUs – a startup itself – handles customer support and back-office services for rapidly-growing startup juggernauts like Uber, Groupon, and Tinder – to name a few.

It’s headquartered in Santa Monica, California, but its operations are in the Philippines, the second biggest market for outsourcing next to India. TaskUs’ workforce is divided into teams that work mostly for US companies. They do a range of tasks such as customer support via email, phone, and chat, data entry, content moderation, graphics creation, and lead generation, among others.

TaskUs co-founder Bryce Maddock says his company is an attractive partner for many tech startups that want to use their capital efficiently. These tech firms turn to TaskUs for jobs that if done in-house, will be labor-intensive and very expensive to scale.

“We are changing the way companies scale and greatly reducing their time to profitability, which increases their valuations and attractiveness to investors,” adds co-founder Jasper Weir.

TaskUs has so far supported more than 200 clients and at least 10 of them have achieved billion-dollar valuations.

First external funding

TaskUs has kept a low profile since launch, especially when it comes to investors. It has bootstrapped and reinvested its earnings to grow. “This is the first time we’ve taken any outside funding, and we sought out Navegar as a partner because of its deep roots in our sector,” notes Maddock.

Navegar is a Manila-based private equity fund that invests exclusively in companies with exposure to the Philippines. The fund is managed by Nori Poblador and Javier Infante in collaboration with Brummer & Partners, a leading European alternative asset manager with expertise in the outsourcing industry.

According to Maddock, the money from Navegar will allow him and Weir to take their firm to the next level.

The idea for TaskUs came from a pain Maddock experienced when he was working for an investment bank in New York. He tells Tech in Asia how frustrated he was with the repetitive nature of that job. “I thought there had to be another way of doing the work and I told my boss that we should think about outsourcing. He didn’t like the idea. I decided to quit and build it myself.”

When TaskUs came to the Philippines, the firm had less than US$25,000 in capital and a seven-person team. It was operating from a residential home in the province of Cavite, with a 3 mbps DSL connection and no back-up power. Those were hard times.