Hiring from anywhere startup Remote closes $150m Series B

The pandemic has made sure that future of work is going to be distributed and global.

To hire globally in a compliant manner, employers are leaning on HR tech tools, which, in turn, are attracting significant investor attention.

Hot on the heels of Boundless closes a €2.5 million Seed round, Localyze raising $12 million in a Series A and a $156 million Series C for Deel, New York-headquartered hiring from anywhere platform Remote has announced a $150 million Series B.

This comes just eight months after its $35m Series A and after a stellar year for Remote; in 2020, the startup saw a 65-fold increase in revenue and ten times more users. Therefore, Remote has become the latest HR tech unicorn.

The Series B was led by Accel, but existing investors like Sequoia, Index Ventures, Two Sigma, General Catalyst, and Day One Ventures also participated.

According to a blogpost by co-founder and CEO Job van der Voort – who is based in Amsterdam and worked at Gitlab until founding Remote in 2019 with Lisbon-based CTO Marcelo Lebre – the startup will use the funding “to make it even easier for businesses to hire the best global talent.

“By doing so, we will increase access to the global job market for companies and workers alike, furthering our vision for a more equitable, more connected world.”

Remote plans to support this goal by increasing from 50 to 80 legal entities by the end of next year.

It will also use the influx of capital to continue to grow its platform beyond just hiring, but also supporting distributed, global teams with burdensome administrative tasks.

It is going to launch a new Global Employee API, which “will allow HR and payroll companies to take advantage of Remote’s vertically integrated global employment structure within their own products and platforms,” as well as expanding their integrations to include Ripple and Greenhouse, advisory services, financial services offerings and benefits consultation.

van der Voort told TechCrunch that what makes Remote stand out from its competitors in the hiring from anywhere market is that “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 to build infrastructure products, foundational products because those have a higher level of quality and ultimately a lower price.”

Accel partner Miles Clements told TechCrunch: “Remote is at the center of a profound shift in the way that companies hire.

“Their new Global Employee API opens up access to Remote’s robust global employment infrastructure and knowledge map, and will help any HR provider expand internationally at a speed impossible before.

“Remote’s future vision as a financial services provider will consolidate complicated processes into one trusted platform, and we’re excited to partner with the global leader in the quickly emerging category of remote work.”