South African talent marketplace, OfferZen, is one of those who benefitted from the growing global demand for tech workers. It has been confirmed to have raised $5.07 million in its series A funding from a South African investment company, Base Capital.
OfferZen was founded in 2015 by Philip Joubert, Malan Joubert and Brett Jones
Being a tech talent marketplace, OfferZen gives room for software developers and engineers to signup as candidates and are later curated by OfferZen and suggested to various companies. Developers are given the privilege to be live on the marketplace for a period of $ weeks and are guaranteed by OfferZen to be contacted by various companies.
As a South African talent marketplace, OfferZen has operated solely in South Africa for a period of 4 and half years until April 2020 then expanded its tentacles to the Netherlands after acquiring TryCatch an Amsterdam-based recruitment tech startup.
According to Philip Joubert the CEO OfferZen, over a thousand companies as well as 100,000 software developers make use of the tech talent marketplace. Most of its users from both ends of the marketplace are South Africa-based, the Netherlands, and some parts of Europe such as the U.K. and Germany, which are prominent hubs for global talent.
Expansion to the Netherlands and some servicing parts of Europe contributed greatly to the growth experienced by OfferZen in the second half of the year, with a 29% increase in placements between Q3 and Q4 alone. In a statement released by the CEO, he stated that
“ Due to Covid Pandemic, Tech hiring was at a standstill in the first half of 2020. Ever since then, we have however seen a huge acceleration in the marketplace as companies are now raising more capital than they did before the pandemic, investing more in technology and hiring much faster subsequently,”.
