Solvate, a platform that matches freelancers with employers, announced this week that it has raised $4 million in Series B financing from company CEO Michael Paolucci, RRE Ventures and DFJ Gotham. The company previously raised a $2.3 million Series A financing in August 2009.
About two weeks after securing that first round, the company launched the Solvate Talent Engine, a tool other small businesses and startups can use to search Solvate’s index of freelancers.
Solvate is just one of a rising tide of services–which includes Redbeacon, Thumbtack, others–that provide the mediating platform between independent professional talent and employers looking for that talent. With people increasingly online, it just makes more sense to save time by hiring through these kinds of third-party platforms.
“With the rise of services from Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live, to Yammer and Chatter, people no longer need to be in the same office to work together effectively,” said Solvate CEO Paolucci in a statement. “Those services support work among people who already know each other. Solvate facilitates work between people who heretofore have not met; we’re the trusted middleware between such parties to work from afar.”
In a year and a half, Solvate has accumulated a database of over 1,000 U.S.-based independent professionals. That number could probably be a bit higher if just anybody could register, but that’s not the case. Solvate manually sorts through applications from potential new talent, taking into account their resume and additional proof of work experience, before deciding whether or not to qualify and catalogue the applicant on the site.
Once on the site, professionals indicate their exact their hourly rate on their profile, along with the kind of work they do.
Besides getting access to a hand-picked group of independent professionals, businesses using Solvate also benefit from not having to handle the administrative paperwork involved in hiring freelance work, like NDAs, contracts and tax forms.
The new funding will be used to improve Solvate’s interface as well as to expand the number of clients and talent using the site.
