London-based Passionfruit, a freelancing platform, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $9M (approximately €8.2M) funding in a Series A funding round led by Seaya.
Existing Seed round investors, including Firstminute Capital, Playfair Capital, Cornerstone, and Portfolio Ventures, also participated.
The latest capital injection will allow the UK company to continue developing products to enhance collaboration between independent workers and businesses and expand further into North America.
Additionally, the company will add focus on software for businesses to track progress in real-time across their entire growth planning, execution & reporting cycles.
To date, the company has raised a total fund of around $13.3M (approximately €12.2M).
“This investment is a vote of confidence in our vision of a world where everyone works in a way that works for them, while businesses are operating and growing more cost-effectively, with the right people in the right place at the right time,” says Raffi Salama, Co-Founder and CEO of Passionfruit.
Passionfruit: Freelancing platform for marketing
Passionfruit, founded by Raffi Salama and Issah Abdul Moomin, is a company that provides an AI-powered platform.
The platform simplifies a company’s ability to discover, arrange, and engage vetted independent talent, especially in Marketing.
Additionally, Passionfruit offers on-project collaboration tools, allowing all parties to plan, implement, and report on entire workstreams within a single, streamlined platform.
“We started our business because we believed that the next generation deserved a new way to operate their professional lives, and we realised that if we could reimagine career infrastructure end-to-end for the 21st century, businesses would also be enabled to operate in a more agile way, one that drives more efficient growth,” adds Raffi Salama.
Since its inception, the platform’s worker base has surged to a community of over 3,000, and it supports the needs of hundreds of major brands worldwide, including PepsiCo, Mars, ABinBev, HSBC, and The Match Group.
Issah Abdul Moomin, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, says, “Work doesn’t work well for too many people. Businesses often struggle to bring the right expertise to their most important challenges, and freelancers face barriers to accessing meaningful opportunities. This funding allows us to continue building the operating system that empowers independent workers and businesses to collaborate efficiently and productively.”
The investor
Seaya Ventures is a European Venture Capital fund that invests in exceptional entrepreneurs who are building global technology companies.
The VC currently manages over €650M across five early-stage venture funds.
The company accelerates the growth of startups by providing them with its global platform, its extensive network of founders, investors, and multinational corporations, as well as all its experience in the global expansion of companies such as Glovo, Cabify, Wallbox, Spotahome, Clarity AI, Clicars, Alma and RatedPower.
Beatriz Gonzalez, Founder and Managing Partner of Seaya says, “As tech investors we believe in the opportunity for innovation to bring real change and disruption to the workplace. We have been looking for a chance to participate in this revolution; Passionfruit, led by Raffi and Issah, has created an unprecedented value proposition connecting tier-I talent with leading global brands. We are looking forward to supporting this amazing team in their vision to break down barriers and contribute to a fundamental change in the way we work.”
