When the global pandemic struck last year, millions of people transitioned from working in physical offices to working from home, within the span of a few weeks. Physical meetings turned to video calls and break-time interactions moved to online messaging platforms. While several major economies are lifting movement restrictions, it is clear that remote work is here to stay. Several employees and companies are exploring either fully remote or hybrid working structures owing to the flexibility that comes with working remotely.
Therefore, there is a growing demand for remote working tools and software that allow remote teams to function effectively and efficiently. New York-based Remote is one such startup catering to this emerging need. Remote provides tools to manage onboarding, payroll, benefits and other services for technology and other knowledge remote workers, regardless of whether they are contractors or full-time employees.
After registering strong demand for its suite of tools, Remote announced that it has raised $150 million in its Series B funding round. The round was led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Sequoia, Index Ventures, Two Sigma, General Catalyst and Day One Ventures. According to TechCrunch, the new round puts the company’s valuation at over $1 billion, making it one of the latest unicorns.
Founded in 2017, Remote will use the fresh funds to expand and continue building more tools and partnerships to integrate with other providers of services. Unlike its competitors in the Employer of Record Services space, Remote owns all of its infrastructures.
The startup provides human resource services for 50 countries and aims to expand its presence to 80 countries by the end of 2021. Moreover, Remote is planning to enhance its platform with more tools in areas like benefits, equity incentive planning, visa and immigration support and employee relocation.
Remote co-founder and CEO Job van der Voort said,
Job van der Voort
“We are doubling down on our approach. We try to fully own the entire stack: entity, operations, experts in house, payroll, benefits and visa and immigration — all of the items that come up most often. We want to build infrastructure products, foundational products because those have a higher level of quality and ultimately a lower price.”
Along with its funding announcement, the startup also announced the launch of Global Employee API and a partnership with Greenhouse, an applicant tracking system and recruiting software.
Remote’s Global Employee API will allow HR and payroll companies to take advantage of Remote’s vertically integrated global employment structure within their own products and platforms, the company said. Moreover, it will help clients consolidate domestic and international payroll and enable their teams to grow faster.
On the other hand, the partnership with Greenhouse will allow Remote to integrate Greenhouse’s employee information data into its platform. This will help increase the speed and accuracy of Remote customers’ onboarding processes, the company said.
Remote has experienced robust growth since last year. It raised $35 million in its Series A funding round in November 2020. Since November, Remote’s customer base has grown 7x while the number of users on its platform has increased 10x in the last eight months. Its team has also grown significantly from 50 to over 220 team members in 47 countries spread across six continents.
According to TechCrunch, Remote’s revenue has increased 65 times, signifying a sharp uptick in user engagement.
Featured image credit: Job van der Voort, co-founder and CEO, Remote
