Millennials will typically change jobs multiple times as they seek the perfect fit. WayUp wants to help them pursue their workplace dreams with its job marketplace and announced today that it has secured an additional $18.5 million in funding to do so.
“On average, millennials are expected to jump jobs four times in their first decade out of college,” wrote WayUp cofounder and CEO Liz Wessel, in an email to VentureBeat. “However, we believe WayUp’s technology will change that.” The startup uses machine learning to refine searches and execute better matches between students in U.S. colleges and hiring companies.
The service is free for students and recent grads — WayUp generates revenue from the employers, who pay a monthly fee based on the size of their company and the features they select. WayUp claims to have over 3.5 million users and lists jobs from over 300,000 different companies, including Facebook, Google, and The New York Times.
Above: WayUp website and app
Competition in this space is fierce. Services like Indeed, Glassdoor, and, of course, LinkedIn, all provide search engines to find jobs. WayUp recently acquired one of its main competitors, Looksharp, for an undisclosed amount.
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But Wessel cites two other types of competitors that she hopes to crush: “Career fairs and nepotism!” “Career fairs are inefficient events that cost millions of dollars for companies who end up just going to a few schools and therefore not recruiting from everywhere they want,” she wrote.
Trinity Ventures led today’s round, with participation from existing investors General Catalyst, BoxGroup, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Index Ventures, SV Angel, Female Founders Fund, Axel Springer, CAA Ventures, and OurCrowd.
Based in New York City, WayUp was founded in 2014 and has raised a total of $27.5 million to date. The new capital will be used to hire engineers and to further develop the platform’s machine learning capabilities.
WayUp currently has 51 employees.
