Otta Technology secures £15 million Series A investment led by Tiger Global Management

Otta raises $20m Series A from Tiger to change the game for job seekers

London, Tuesday 25th January 2022, 0800 GMTOtta announces today a Series A investment to continue its mission to build candidate-first job search. Tiger Global Management led the $20 million round and joins institutional investors LocalGlobe and Founder Collective, as well as 14 renowned angels. 

Sam Franklin, Co-founder and CEO says,

“When we started Otta, people told us job search was soul-crushing. Recruitment felt like it was stuck in the classifieds era. We believe there’s a different way, and we call it candidate-first job search. It’s a new category that flips industry dynamics on its head. Candidates are prioritised, rather than treated like second-class citizens, and this attracts the best talent to our product”. 

Otta curates the best jobs at the most sought-after tech companies and matches candidates with relevant roles. Users browse opportunities one at a time, and find all of the information they need in one place (a snapshot of the industry, the company’s D&I stats and mission, founder bios, employee reviews, salaries). 

Remus Brett from LocalGlobe explains,

“We backed Sam and the team when Otta was just a vision, and since then the business has seen great traction with candidates and companies alike. With the climate emergency and social justice top of mind, Otta has a huge opportunity to connect a generation of thoughtful job seekers with mission-driven companies. Now is the decade to bring a truly candidate-first job search experience to the masses.”

Angel investors backing Otta bring a wealth of experience in the recruitment space, including Indeed’s Paul Forster, Alex Bouaziz of Deel, Ben Herman of Canvas.com (now Kin Ventures), Sophie Adelman of Multiverse and Sultan Saidov & Abakar Saidov of Beamery. 

The pandemic has opened up a world of remote opportunities, and caused many to pause and re-evaluate their jobs and careers. Candidates are now pickier than ever – 37% of Otta users say their number one priority is meaningful work (whereas only 18% prioritise compensation). With over 250,000 companies growing headcount 20%+ a year and 2021 seeing more VC money invested into technology companies than ever before, the war for talent rages on. Fast-growth businesses in particular are struggling to attract the greatest people. 

Otta’s model of connecting the best talent with the most sought-after companies fills a gap in the market. Checkout.com, a company on Otta Pro (the business’s paid SaaS offering) recently raised $1bn and is aiming to hire 1,000 people over the next year. Laurence Bargery at accuRx, another company on Otta Pro, explains: “I always get excited when I see an application from Otta. They don’t send the most applicants, they send the best”.

This Series A investment will allow Otta to continue its extraordinary rate of growth. Since launching in January 2020, the business has gone from 1,000 applications sent per month to more than 5,000 every day. The US business has already overtaken the UK in terms of growth, amassing more monthly applicants in 2 months than the UK market in 2 years.

Otta will significantly expand its American presence with an on the ground Commercial team, and double the Product & Engineering team in London. Now entering ‘Phase 2’ of product development, Franklin explains

“We’ve built a world-class product experience so far: the best jobs, information and matching. The next challenge is to encourage behaviour change among companies – we’re not afraid to be bold and call out businesses in order to create a better job search experience. For instance, we’re building an incentive mechanism where companies posting jobs without salary ranges will get less visibility. NYC has just announced that all job postings will be required to advertise salaries for more transparency – it’s time for companies to step up”.

-Ends- 

About Otta

Otta is the better way to find a job in tech. Designed for job seekers, the platform has over 70,000 active job listings at 3,500 of the most exciting startups, scaleups and tech giants. Otta’s matching technology pairs its 350,000 users with relevant roles based on personal preferences, skill sets and values. By adding useful insights to each job – diversity, salary, unbiased reviews and ‘Otta’s Take’ on the industry — candidates have all the information they need to find a fulfilling role. Otta lists jobs in the US, UK and Europe as well as remote opportunities. While the focus right now is on technology companies, longer term, Otta is set to become home to jobs at all the best companies. 

Otta was founded in 2019 by Sam Franklin (CEO), Theo Margolius (COO) and Xav Kearney (CTO).

Press contact

Safiya Marzook

Related post

This will close in 25 seconds