On-demand staffing platform Workmate bags $5.2m in series A round

Singapore-headquartered Workmate (formerly Helpster), which connects blue-collar workers with employers in Southeast Asia, has raised US$5.2 million in a series A round led by early-stage VC fund Atlas Ventures.

China’s Gobi Partners and Thailand-based Beacon Venture Capital, a wholly owned corporate VC fund of Kasikornbank, also participated in the round alongside existing investors.

Workmate co-founder and CEO Mathew Ward / Photo credit: Workmate

Workmate plans to use the new funds to boost investment in sales, expand its tech team, and extend its reach into new cities. The series A round brought the startup’s total funding to US$10 million, Workmate said in a statement.

According to the company, the informal labor sector of Southeast Asia accounts for more than half of the region’s workforce, with about US$200 billion in wages paid to informal workers per year. In addition, the staffing market for informal labor in the region is expected to double to US$8 billion by 2025.

Workmate then looks to bank on this growth by further developing its platform. “The traditional staffing model is very manual and has very little technology adoption; it hasn’t changed much in 40 years. It’s a big market which is ripe for disruption,” said Workmate co-founder and CEO Mathew Ward.

The company pre-screens all workers on its platform before they are made available to hire. Businesses can then browse for qualified workers that fit their requirements. Workers, on the other hand, are shown multiple job offers that match their skills and experience upon passing the screening process.

Some of its key early customers include companies such as aCommerce, Lazada, Taco Bell, and JD Central, according to the statement. In Indonesia, it supports Grab, Ninja Van, and Kopi Kenangan, among others.

In addition to Singapore, Workmate also has offices in Bangkok, Jakarta, and Bali, with plans to expand to more markets next year. It operates in the same space as Singapore-based FindWork, which has employers in Indonesia and the Philippines on its platform.