HomeFundingBerlin-based HeyJobs nabs €35 million to help solve Europe’s labour shortage

Berlin-based HeyJobs nabs €35 million to help solve Europe’s labour shortage

Using AI to drive talent acquisition, HeyJobs has just picked up €35 million in Series B funding, supporting the mission to help everyone find the right job to live a fulfilling life. The fresh funding was led by Digital+ and FMZ ventures, with participation from existing investors Notion Capital, Heartcore Capital and Creathor Ventures. This is the largest financing round a talent platform in Germany has ever received.

The European talent shortage is a growing concern in business circles at the moment. As a result of changing population demographics, whereby the ‘boomer’ generation is reaching retirement age, European employers are facing declines in the available workforce. This is further compounded by increasing digitalisation across sectors which requires highly skilled profiles. It’s reported that Germany alone is losing 500k workers annually as a result of changing population demographics. 

Based in Berlin and with offices also in Cologne and Vienna, HeyJobs was developed in 2016 by Marius Luther and Marius Jeuck to address this challenge – using AI to match talent and employers. 

The startup helps employers recruit ‘essential talent’ across 100 different professions such as lorry drivers, nurses, or electricians. The company differentiates through their unique data set and proprietary machine learning algorithms. 

Marius Luther, Founder & CEO, explained: “Whilst 5 years ago, we could identify who is a nurse versus a driver, our AI has now learned to identify who is a qualified intensive care unit nurse that seeks to do 3 night shifts. It’s crazy how we as a society have neglected the largest share of the workforce – 30 million alone in Germany, over 200 million essential talent in Europe –  for decades. They deserve better.”

Today, the HeyJobs talent platform is used by hundreds of thousands of job seekers as well as over 2,700 employers ranging from SMEs to the largest European employers. Their customers have made over 100k hires through HeyJobs to date totalling over €5 billion in annual wages.

Marius Luther, Founder & CEO: “We are proud of the way we support companies to better and more cost-effectively achieve their hiring goals. But what really moves me is that we changed the lives of over 100k people through finding their next great opportunity. In 2021, we were responsible for around 1% of all German hires. And while this is a nice proof of our relevance, it still feels like Day 1 in terms of the long term value we can create.”

HeyJobs will use the funding to push the application of artificial intelligence in talent acquisition, supporting their mission of “helping everyone find the right job to live a fulfilling life.” With this at heart, HeyJobs is also setting best practices as an employer of their own. The company has doubled its headcount in the past 12 months to 300 employees and is continually hiring both new and seasoned professionals across product, data science, engineering and business roles.

Michael Zeisser of FMZ Ventures, former Chairman Alibaba Investments and an investor in numerous marketplaces commented: “HeyJobs is a leading next-generation company in the emerging Experience Economy; its purpose is to provide users the economic opportunity to realize their full human potential; it is a privilege to support this team and its mission.”

Patricia Allen
Patricia Allen
is the former Head of Content at EU-Startups. With a background in politics, Patricia has a real passion for how shared ideas across communities and cultures can bring new initiatives and innovations for the future.
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