Israeli freelance platform Stoke raises $4.5m

Israeli on-demand freelance platform Stoke has raised $4.5 million to help companies access the growing talent pool of self-employed freelancers and contractors and manage this flexible workforce at scale. The seed round was led by TLV Partners with participation from Bogomil Balkansky (former VP Cloud Recruiting Solutions at Google), Flatiron Health founder Zach Weinberg, Boaz Chalamish (CEO of Clarizen), and others. As the pace of business accelerates, companies need to adapt fast and adopt an agile approach. A key factor is staying up to date with trends and knowledge; firms want the best people working for them, and often need to scale up quickly or bring on specialist talent with the skills or knowledge to perform a specific task, ensuring the workforce matches the pace of business.

Stoke’s talent-on-demand platform will enable companies to find, hire and manage freelancers at scale. Stoke will provide organizations with a management platform for their existing external workforce, as well as integrate with popular online freelancer marketplaces, enabling Stoke users to search these sites in from Stoke’s own unified interface and easily on-board new people.

Stoke was founded by CEO Shahar Erez and Hilik Paz to solve the problems companies face managing an agile workforce.

Erez said, "The new generation who've entered the workforce in the past decade want a different contract with life; they want flexibility and ongoing self-development. Companies, meanwhile, are changing their operating models and becoming learning, evolving organizations. On-demand talent provides the scale, knowledge and flexibility these organizations require. Stoke will bridge the gap between enterprises and freelancers, providing a one-stop management platform for the Open Talent Economy".

Bogomil Balkansky explained why he invested in Stoke. "I’ve faced the challenge of locating and onboarding on-demand talent, both at a 20-person startup and during my stint at Google. Regardless of company size, hiring managers are wasting inordinate amount of time sourcing and screening contractors, and then chasing statements of work, invoices and payments. That's why I was excited to back Shahar and Hilik's vision."

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on September 4, 2019