Staffly, Inc., the rapidly growing staffing service that instantly connects retailers with pre-vetted, qualified hourly retail staff through their mobile devices, today announced it has completed a $1.25 million Series Seed 2 funding round. ff Venture Capital led the round with participation from existing shareholders LionBird, as well as Three Fish Capital and WS Ventures. John Frankel, a founding partner at ff Venture Capital, is to join the Board. The investment brings Staffly's total funding since its launch to over $2 million.
The financing round builds on Staffly's traction since the launch of its pilot program in March 2015. In just nine months, Staffly has grown to employ hundreds of Staffers to serve its fast-growing retail clients in San Francisco Bay Area; was selected to participate in TechCrunch Disrupt SF's Startup Battlefield; and has surpassed $100,000 in monthly revenues. Most recently, Staffly appointed Humberto T. Reyes as Head of Product and Engineering, rounding out the company's seasoned leadership team. Reyes brings with him a wealth of experience running engineering at a variety of startups ranging from marketing automation platform (Boomity) to real-time data streaming solutions (Smaarts) to B2B marketplaces (eVine). With the new financing, Staffly will continue to build out its product and engineering team, enhance its platform and prepare for expansion.
'We founded Staffly to solve retailers' number one problem: part-time employee attrition has historically been an atrocious 70 percent annually,' said Marissa Ovick, co-founder and COO at Staffly. 'We've done a lot of research to understand why this occurs, and the root issue is that typical part-time employees want to work 25 hours a week and demand a flexible schedule. Retailers need two times more staff for peak hours, but are only giving their part-time employees 10-15 hours a week with a fixed schedule, leading to high attrition rates.'
'We are excited to be leading an investment into Staffly,' said John Frankel, founding partner at ffVC. 'Staffly has found a really amazing opportunity in the temporary employment space, that is not being currently addressed. They have the means to be material contributors to the bottom lines of the retailers they serve as well as providing meaningful employment to young adults that are looking for temporary employment. This is an amazing team addressing a very interesting machine learning problem in an unlikely place.'
Staffly's service alleviates retailers' frustrations of unexpected turnover and last-minute absenteeism. The company helps retailers plan for peak hours without having to commit to payroll for workers they may not need. For about $19 an hour, retailers can instantly engage Staffers who are W2 employees of Staffly, simply by using their mobile devices. Staffly handles the responsibilities of interviewing, background checks, training, payroll, workers' comp, insurances and taxes, allowing retailers to focus on finding the right Staffer fit, rather than looking for qualified candidates. Staffers can have a flexible schedule and can work with multiple retailers to meet their financial objective.
'This round of funding comes at a very exciting time for Staffly, with the holidays just around the corner, enabling us to enhance our platform before the peak staffing season,' said Bjorn Ovick, co-founder and CEO at Staffly. 'The retail industry is expected to add 755,000 temporary workers by mid-December to prepare for the holidays. With Staffly, retailers can find pre-vetted, skilled Staffers with the most relevant experience for their store, and our Staffers get the security of knowing they'll be able to work steady hours even after the holidays.'
To learn more about Staffly, visit http://www.staffly.com.
About Staffly, Inc.
Staffly is a staffing app that connects retailers with pre-vetted, qualified hourly retail staff (Staffers), on demand, through their mobile devices so they never have to worry about unexpected absenteeism or turnover. Because Staffly is built from the ground up for the mobile generation, they are able to reach Staffers who find traditional staffing agencies slow, inflexible, and hard to work with. They also take advantage of their rich data about Staffer behavior to optimize the match between clients and Staffers. Through Staffly's services and platform, retailers can choose from its database of pre-screened, insured Staffers - all W2 employees of Staffly. With the pilot program beginning in March 2015 and the official launch in September 2015, Staffly has rapidly grown to employ hundreds of Staffers serving a multitude of signed retail clients in the Bay Area, with plans to launch in additional markets in the coming year. For more information, visit http://www.staffly.com or call 415-702-0552. To join the retail staffing conversation, like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Staffly. Staffly addresses the under served retail hourly employee market through it's efficient matching, vetting and boarding process which is accessed through a mobile device benefiting both the retailer and hourly staff.
About ff Venture Capital
ff Venture Capital is a seed and early-stage focused firm based in New York that seeks to invest in a wide range of emerging technology-enabled industries. The 27-person team has made over 250 investments in over 80 companies since 2008, backing creative entrepreneurs who are changing the way we interact with the world. ffVC's portfolio companies have ongoing access to the ff Acceleration Team, who provide a full range of services in accounting and finance, PR and branding, engineering, recruiting, community management and business development.