Why we invested in Werk — a construction worker relocation platform
We are excited to welcome Werk to the Change Ventures portfolio! We led their $1.3M pre-seed round, joined by Foundamental VC, the largest global investor covering the Built-World — ConstructionTech and architecture, engineering and design technology, as well as angel investors Carmen Alfonso-Rico and Anthony Danon (Cocoa VC), Declan Kelly (Foreword VC), Gonzalo Manrique (Ironhack), and Andreas Klinger (On Deck CTO and Head of Remote at AngelList).
After the Baltic states regained their independence and cross-border travel opened up, thousands of households started to rely on relatively well paying jobs on western construction projects. Three decades later, there’s a greater need than ever for good quality migrant construction workers, but the market is still largely unstructured, creating unwanted inefficiencies on both sides of the marketplace. Upon taking a closer look at the current state of affairs, it was evident that the cross-border construction recruitment market is more than ripe for innovation with the help of modern tech.
Enter Werk, the first hiring and relocation platform for skilled migrant construction workers — a platform that enables companies to hire skilled and vetted migrant construction workers, handling everything from recruitment, verification, and relocation. The team is on a mission to bring transparency to the often exploitative world of cross-border blue collar contracting; supporting workers relocating to other countries by automating paperwork and visa documentation, and only works with companies that guarantee they will provide workers with the same payment terms, treatment, and protection conditions as they would if they were a local.
We are thrilled to partner with the three great (triple M) minds behind this start-up: Martin Kalamees (CEO), Marion Kallakas (COO), and Markus Tarn (CTO). They are one of the most mission driven, visionary and energised teams we have met in a while. They not only combine the extremely relevant expertise in the legal & construction market, but they also have shown outstanding hiring qualities of senior talent very early on. The team dynamics were something that sold us right on the first meeting & have only been reinforced further as we spent more time with the team.
A big chunk of the funding will go towards adding even more top talent to the team — so keep your eyes out for any new openings. We’re convinced that this team will be taking the cross-border construction market by storm.
NOW, LET’S GET TO WERK! 😉 🚧
Rait Ojasaar & Gabriele Poteliunaite
PS More color can also be found on the news story by Sifted here.
