Fountain Raises $23M to Transform Gig and Hourly Recruiting

Fountain, the recruiting platform for gig and hourly workers, today announced the closing of a $23 million Series B funding round led by DCM, with participation from 51 job and existing investors Origin Ventures, Uncork Capital, and others. This brings the company’s total fundraising to $34 million. As part of the financing, DCM co-founder David Chao will join Fountain’s Board of Directors, and DMC partner Kyle Lui will join as Board Observer.

The changing workforce

The vast majority of the workforce are shift-based or hourly workers. In fact, 85% of the global workforce, or nearly 2.7 billion people, are paid hourly, and in the U.S. alone, there are more than 80 million hourly workers. This segment of the workforce is constantly evolving due to factors like low unemployment, legislation, and automation, and it’s projected that nearly one-third of today's work will be automated by 2030.

Additionally, many of these workers hold more than one job, often supplementing a primary role with other hourly or gig work. Unsurprisingly, the gig and freelance economy is now growing three times faster than the rest of the workforce and will make up 43% of the workforce by 2020.

Founded in 2015 during the initial height of the gig economy, Fountain now processes more than 1 million applications to fill 150,000 hourly and gig positions every month for its customers, including Taco Bell franchisee Golden Gate Bell, Chick-fil-A, Lime, Safeway, and more. Since its inception, Fountain has placed more than four million jobs.

Fountain’s customers leverage its technology to streamline the entire candidate recruitment process, from sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, processing background checks, SMS communications, to document signing and onboarding.

Fountain will invest this latest round of funding in R&D to accelerate product development for existing customers as well as expand its reach across businesses within the restaurant and hospitality industry.