The Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the development of the online recruitment marketplace Remotebase, which is today announcing a $2.1 million capital raising to broaden its market reach. When the crisis drove the founders of Qasim Salam and Talha Masood to close two start-ups they had founded from their native Pakistan to service US clientele, they turned misfortune into opportunity.
Salam remembers, “We faced a real crisis, but the last thing we wanted to do was fire talented staff in the midst of the pandemic, because they all had families who were dependent on them financially.” We frantically sent emails to all of our Silicon Valley friends to check if anyone was in need of a software engineer and to see if our developers would be a good fit.
Salam and Masood did not realize how much demand there would be for remote-working engineers due to the pandemic, especially for the high-caliber experts they employed. The realization came suddenly. We came to the realization that we needed to refocus our operations on hiring.
In the past two years, Remotebase has carried out exactly that. Currently, it employs over 60,000 software engineers. New hires go through a series of tests, trials, and interviews before they are put to the database; each one is rigorously vetted so that the organization is aware of their skills and specialties.
As a result, unlike other recruitment networks where people frequently self-certify their talents, Remotebase is able to give its clients access to a much more carefully selected set of software engineers. They choose the ideal applicant for the position when requests from clients come in – mostly from quickly expanding Californian technology companies.
It’s high-value work; to date, the business has put about 100 engineers in prestigious positions, earning significant commissions. The $2.1 million fund-raise announced today will be used to create Talently, a new service that the founders believe will allow them to expand their market reach.