SAN FRANCISCO — WorkWhile announced it has raised a $13M Series A, led by Reach Capital with participation from existing investors Khosla Ventures, F7 Ventures and new investors Chamaeleon, Position Ventures, and Gaingels, among others. The company currently has a presence in 13 major markets across the US, and plans to use the funds to drive growth and hiring, doubling market footprint in 2022.
The startup also launched the first API for hourly workers with pilot partners WORLDPAC, a division of Advance Auto Parts, and technology partner Bringg, the leading data-led delivery and fulfillment cloud platform provider. This partnership will enable Bringg customers to create automatic last-mile courier shifts, and ensure all AAP’s mechanic customers can get their parts reliably delivered.
Getting Americans Back To Work
Founded in 2019 by Jarah Euston and Amol Jain, WorkWhile’s platform allows hourly workers to choose when, where and how they want to work, giving them the power to create a schedule that works for them. There are 82M hourly wage earners in the US, comprising 58% of the labor force over the age of 16, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and are at most risk for hardship. Having unreliable work or receiving last-minute schedule changes can result in up to 70% higher chance of experiencing serious economic instability.
“Working on the WorkWhile platform, I was able to get an apartment by myself for the first time since I’ve lived in California, because I’m finally being paid a living wage. For the first time in my adult life, I actually felt like I had autonomy over my work, which is something that’s usually lacking for gig and hourly workers,” said Mia Wu. “As hourly workers, we’re expected to be at the beck and call of the employer. On WorkWhile, there are no more demands to come in on my day off, no more last minute schedules that I had no choice but to accept, and no more bottom-dollar job offers that I felt were my only option.”
“What I love about working on WorkWhile is that you know exactly how much you’ll be working, what job you’ll be doing, and how much you’ll make before you even accept a shift,” added Keiarah Addison. “There’s no waiting around hoping you’ll get pinged with a job, or feeling pressure to accept a job without knowing if it’ll pay you fairly for your time. WorkWhile provides the stability of a regular paycheck with the flexibility most people need to care for themselves and their families.”
WorkWhile offers not only the power for workers to select shifts and create a schedule that works for them, but also offers 100% transparency into what the worker will make, which can be as much as twice the minimum wage in their local market. They also offer portable benefits like next-day pay, access to telehealth services, and more. With this round, WorkWhile plans to explore offering new perks and benefits that address the core pain points of its workforce, including upskilling and career development.
“WorkWhile has created a two-sided marketplace that both serves the needs of workers and their employer partners,” added Jomayra Herrera, partner at Reach Capital. “We believe hourly workers want access to shifts on their terms, their earned pay as soon as possible, and access to benefits traditionally offered only to W-2 workers like telehealth. WorkWhile provides all of that and more while also offering clients access to reliable workers they’re in desperate need of. We couldn’t be prouder to be investing in this company and team and this key stage of growth.”
Helping Companies Address The Hourly Worker Shortage
By giving workers more stability, easier access to their earnings, and above market wages, WorkWhile is able to offer corporate clients a high quality, reliable workforce to fill high-demand roles like light industrial and last-mile courier delivery right when they’re most needed. Average no-show rate for WorkWhile workers is only 5%, and WorkWhile’s predictive machine learning models can predict with 76% accuracy whether or not a worker will turn up for a shift. To date, WorkWhile has filled shifts at companies like Advance Auto Parts, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Good Eggs, Thistle, Edible Arrangements, Dandelion Chocolate and Bassett Furniture, among others.
“Hourly workers are an incredibly important part of our economy, as evidenced by our current worker shortages and the 10 million open jobs in the US,” said Euston. “These workers play a key role in helping address the supply chain crisis, worker shortage and other challenges we find ourselves facing as an economy today. By not only treating workers well, but also investing in technology like WorkWhile’s labor API, we’re proactively addressing our client’s challenges and making daily operations smoother and more automated.”
The first-of-its-kind labor API removes the manual, tedious work of scheduling last-mile courier shifts, reduces errors, and offers clients a more comprehensive look into labor performance and spend. Now, the company’s advanced labor API makes the process of finding workers and filling shifts seamless, saving customers the money, time and headaches of filling these roles.
“WorkWhile connects us to the high-quality couriers we need to meet our delivery SLAs. In this tough hiring market, we can count on WorkWhile to help scale our team up or down while maintaining quality,” said Tadd Baker, Sr. Director, Operations, WORLDPAC, a division of Advance Auto Parts.
“Jarah and Amol had the foresight to understand that the current model for this incredibly valuable workforce simply isn’t sustainable for either the workers or the companies who depend on them,” said Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures. “By identifying the best workers and treating them right, WorkWhile has created a new approach to work that is mutually beneficial to workers and business and meets the needs of our rapidly evolving economy.”
About WorkWhile
WorkWhile is a worker-first platform that connects the right workers to the right shifts. Through WorkWhile, hourly workers can choose when, where and how they want to work, giving them the power to create a schedule that works for them. WorkWhile offers 100% transparency into what the worker will make, and offers portable benefits like next-day pay, access to telehealth services, and more. By offering workers more control and stability over their schedule and earnings, WorkWhile is able to offer clients looking for workers to fill high-turnover roles like light industrial and last-mile courier delivery with a high quality, reliable workforce they can easily tap when they need. WorkWhile’s predictive machine learning models and advanced labor API makes the process of finding workers and filling shifts seamless. The company is based in San Francisco, CA and has 14 employees. For more information, please visit www.workwhilejobs.com.
