Zenjob closes Series A led by Acton Capital – Berlin-based staffing platform matches well-paid jobs with student workforce

Berlin/Munich, Sep 14, 2017 — Berlin-based startup Zenjob closes Series A financing round with a total of €8 million led by Acton Capital. Other investors include Swiss early-stage investor Redalpine and the existing seed investor Atlantic Labs from Berlin. This round completes an earlier initial investment of €3 million in March, now extended by the investors to a total of €8 million. With the fresh capital, Zenjob will mainly invest in its technology and a domestic roll out starting with cities like Hamburg, Munich and Cologne.

Zenjob is a digital staffing agency that arose as a response to the growing demand for flexibility and digitization in HR. As tech company and with a licence as temp-agency Zenjob connects supply and demand and processes jobs end to end. This includes interviewing, hiring, staffing and payrolling. Founded in January 2016 in Berlin by Fritz Trott, Frederik Fahning and Cihan Aksakal, Zenjob now employs more than 1,500 students and serves over 450 businesses in Berlin alone. Most of their B2B customers are in retail, logistics and hospitality and include businesses such as Tesla, Sheraton Hotels and Gerry Weber.

“Thanks to its smart tech approach and on-demand staffing service, Zenjob offers students fast access to well-paid jobs. The impressive growth and the technology have convinced us to increase our investment.”

– Sebastian Wossagk, Managing Partner at Acton Capital

 

“In this very moment, millions of people are underpaid and doing a job they don’t like. This is what we want to change with Zenjob,” explains the CEO and co-founder of Zenjob Fritz Trott. “More than half of German students need a side-job and with Zenjob, students can work flexibly alongside their studies. We pay competitive salaries starting at € 10 per hour, with an average of € 11.50 per hour. No other company will be able to provide external staff faster or better-qualified than Zenjob.”

“Our technology enables us to serve requests within a few minutes, and our customers experience excellent service through our digital quality assurance.”

– Fritz Trott, founder zenjob

 

With Zenjob, companies can book flexible staff easily without administrative hassle — all candidates are employed by and insured through Zenjob. Clients simply receive an invoice for the hours worked, including a 25% commission for Zenjob. The startup ensures the quality of its student candidate base through a thorough application process and continuous “on-the-job” reviews.

For students, Zenjob provides flexibility and variety. Jobs are offered in real time via the app and are tailored to individual student profiles. Payments are made immediately after completion of the job. The lean administration model also offers fair wages: students receive at least €10 per hour, above average for the jobs offered, such as waiter or office manager.

“The strong growth so far shows Zenjob’s fit with both students and employers. The sophisticated technology that’s at the core of Zenjob’s product allows to minimize the traditionally heavy admin burden on both ends and guarantees fast and smooth matching of jobs with suitable students,” adds Harald Nieder, Managing Partner at Co-investor Redalpine. “Equally important, Zenjob has very quickly established scalable processes for quality assurance. We are excited about the future of Zenjob and the collaboration with the exceptional team there.”