Instawork raises $60 million for warehouse labor marketplace app

The warehouse labor marketplace firm Instawork will accelerate investment in its AI-powered mobile app and platform following a $60 million venture capital round, the company said today.

San Francisco-based Instawork provides a job marketplace focused on the warehouse and logistics sector that that connects over 4 million skilled hourly workers with tens of thousands of businesses, the company says.

According to Instawork, its technology allows businesses to manage their fluctuating staffing requirements while providing hourly workers the ability to choose when, where, and how they work the best. The company says that approach is key to reducing turnover, since workers want better schedules and career advancement, not just higher paychecks.

The “series D” funding round was led by TCV, with participation from new investors 9Yards Capital, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., and existing investors including Benchmark, Spark Capital, Craft Ventures, and Greylock. It brings the firm’s total investment raised to $160 million.

Instawork says the fresh funding follows its strong growth amidst the country's ongoing economic challenges and uncertainty. While the broader tech community struggled, the firm said more than 2 million workers joined the app over the last year alone. Fueled by this growth, Instawork is helping to staff distribution centers (DCs) for some of the country's largest retailers as well as the majority of sports stadiums across the U.S. and Canada.

The firm says it will now invest in additional AI-driven capabilities to connect its partners with workers who both have the right skills to be successful and who reliably show up on-time. It will also provide participants with access to training opportunities to unlock work for users who are not eligible for certain shifts due to a current lack of certification.

"The current ways businesses access labor is fragmented, manual, and under penetrated by technology," said Gautam Gupta, TCV General Partner. "Similar to other category-defining technology companies with which TCV has partnered, we believe Instawork is dramatically changing its industry by using technology and data to connect businesses with the skilled workers they need."