Tech
Jobox helps tradespeople find jobs. Check out the 24-slide pitch deck it used to bring Airbnb-backer General Catalyst into its $42 million funding round.
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- Jobox helps tradespeople – like plumbers and locksmiths – find outsourced work.
- The firm’s $42 million Series B round was backed by Silicon Valley giant General Catalyst.
- Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Jobox used to bring investors on board.
Jobox, a platform helping tradespeople find jobs and digitize their workflow, has raised $42 million in a Series B funding round backed by General Catalyst.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced millions around the world to stay inside, the home services industry – made up of tradespeople like electricians, plumbers, and locksmiths – boomed, as homeowners and businesses alike revamped their properties.
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A recent survey conducted by Rated People, a London-based directory of tradespeople, found as much, with 62% of those surveyed saying 2021 had been their busiest year ever.
Jobox is like an Uber for tradespeople seeking work. The firm’s app acts as a middleman for its pool of independent skilled tradespeople, connecting them with its bank of 50 or so major organizations looking to outsource jobs to individual contractors. Jobox then takes a 20% cut for pairing the two up.
The firm is also helping tradespeople digitize their businesses, enabling them to keep better track of their receipts. While research on the US market is scant, a survey conducted by British rival Tradify previously found a whopping 91% of tradespeople in the UK still rely on pen and paper to conduct business.
The idea for the firm was born in 2016, when cofounder and ops manager Moshe Levi was working as a locksmith in Miami. Levi when he reached out to his cousin – now CEO of the company – Shay Bloch.
“Moshe asked me to help him solve a major problem he was experiencing by building software to manage his business – payments, accounting, and so,” Bloch told Insider.
“He was always on his phone, on the go, and these apps clogged up his workflow instead of streamlining it … After one day with him, I realized that pros were in desperate need of software built specifically for them,” he said.
“I traveled the country to study how pros everywhere worked and how I could build software to make these processes simpler and more efficient.”
Jobox currently operates in 39 US states, with 60 full-time employees and more than 5,000 trades professionals signed up to its platform. The firm told Insider it intended to hire 25 more staff and hoped to reach 10,000 users by the end of the year.
Alongside Silicon Valley investor General Catalyst, which has previously backed the likes of Airbnb, Deliveroo, and Snapchat, the firm’s Series B round was also backed by Resolute VC, NNS, Expanding Capital and angel investor Joey Low.
Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Jobox used to bring investors on board. Check it out below: