Today Malt, a leading European freelance consulting marketplace, lands new funding of €80 million, led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and Eurazeo, to accelerate its tech development and international expansion. This funding will enable Malt to reinforce its leadership position within the freelance consulting market by providing a ‘one-stop-shop’ where freelance talent and companies can join forces to fuel digital transformation.
Founded in 2013, Malt’s innovative marketplace instantly and accurately matches the right freelance talent to businesses’ project needs. It also offers secure and streamlined solutions for both parties to manage the freelance relationship, from issuing a brief to payment at project completion.
Its new funding adds prominent investors Goldman Sachs Growth Equity and Eurazeo to existing investors, Isai and Serena, to support Malt’s ambitious growth strategy. The fundraise is even more critical in a post-COVID-19 world, where companies will look for external consultants and freelance talent to help them accelerate their digital transformation more than ever before.
Malt plans to disrupt the broader European freelance consulting market, currently estimated at €350 billion, by bringing its technology and unique freelance talent matching capabilities to employers and partners in new markets and sectors. With a strong presence in France (Paris, Lyon), Germany (Munich), and Spain (Madrid) pre-pandemic, and boosted by a massive shift towards remote working throughout the COVID-19 crisis, Malt is expected to grow its revenues by 100% in 2021.
“Today, there are six million freelance consultants in Europe, a number that is set to grow exponentially in a rapidly changing post-COVID job market. At Malt, our goal is to give companies direct access to a pool of the most qualified and talented freelancers in the world, those who can help them take their businesses to the next level. This latest round of funding underscores the power of both Malt’s business model and our dedicated community of freelancers, and we are pleased to have Eurazeo and Goldman Sachs join our historical investors, Isai and Serena, to support our ambitions”, explained Vincent Huguet, CEO and Co-Founder at Malt.
“We are delighted to support Malt to build the leading freelance marketplace in Europe. Malt is at the forefront of the future of work, promoting agility, innovation, impact, freedom of choice, making freelancing simpler and more reliable. We are excited to partner with Malt’s founders, empower their community of highly skilled freelancers, and give companies access to the world’s best freelance talents,” said Alexandre Flavier, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs Growth Equity.
“Malt is at a pivotal time in its development. This new round of funding will allow the company to scale rapidly and drive even greater impact. We are excited to partner with Vincent and Alexandre—and offer the expertise of our Growth and Venture teams along with the depth of Eurazeo’s network in Europe—to drive Malt’s future success,” said Yann du Rusquec, Partner at Eurazeo.