South African developer hiring marketplace, OfferZen, has successfully concluded a EUR4 million (US$4.3 million) funding round from top-tier investors, marking a significant milestone in its journey. This comes alongside a strategic reformatting of its business model and key personnel changes.
Founded in 2015 and officially launched in 2016, OfferZen has emerged as a prominent player in the tech hiring sector, facilitating connections between curated, actively job-seeking developers and over 2,000 companies in South Africa and beyond. The startup’s primary goal is to assist companies in maximizing their potential by streamlining the hiring process.
OfferZen previously raised US$5.1 million in a funding round in 2021 and has now secured an additional US$4.3 million from notable investors, Invenfin and AI Capital.
Philip Joubert, Co-founder of OfferZen, expressed his excitement about the recent funding, stating, “Securing this funding from investors who share our long-term vision is a testament to our team’s hard work. We couldn’t be more excited to partner with investors that bring so much experience. Their support and capital investment will help us make a lot of product improvements over the coming months.”
The company has not only celebrated a financial victory but has also made significant adjustments to its business model in response to the challenges faced by its customers in 2023. In addition to the traditional per-hire charge, OfferZen has introduced a fixed-fee unlimited hiring subscription. This shift aims to alleviate the financial burden on tech companies and foster a more sustainable and predictable model.
OfferZen Co-founder Philip Joubert reflected on this change, stating, “It’s always scary making a big change to your business, but fortunately Unlimited worked. It’s easy to budget for, competitively priced, and we hoped it would relieve some of the pressure our customers were feeling. A significant number of our customers have moved to the subscription model over the last year.”
In a noteworthy development, after three years as CEO, Philip Joubert is passing the baton to Matt Beck, the former VP of marketing. Joubert expressed confidence in Beck’s abilities, saying, “Matt has been instrumental in levelling up our business for scale, loves our brand, and has been a great champion of our values. I’m glad to be able to call him my new boss.”
Matt Beck, the incoming CEO, shared his enthusiasm for the upcoming year, stating, “I’m really excited about this year. Our customers can expect the most significant updates to the platform yet in the coming months as we’re introducing completely new ways for candidates and companies to connect using AI.”
As OfferZen continues to evolve and adapt to the dynamic tech hiring landscape, the infusion of funds, business model changes, and leadership transition position the company for further growth and innovation in the months ahead.
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard.