OneSpace bags $9M funding; to boost Saas based workforce platform

St Louis, Missouri-based OneSpace, a virtual workforce that bridges businesses with freelancers, raised $9 million in a Series B funding round led by Lewis & Clark Ventures. The company plans to utilize this funding to expand its product suite with the anticipated launch of its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering later this year. “Since 2012, our team’s mission has been to create a best-in-class platform for accessing and managing cloud-based talent,” said Stephanie Leffler, CEO, OneSpace. “We have proven our technology and we’re now ready to put the power of our platform in the hands of enterprises who are, by far, the largest buyers of flexible talent.” According to the company, what stood out for it over the years are its data-driven performance measurement tools fetching it high visibility in the talent management industry. This, according to an official release, has helped businesses analyze and optimize their virtual teams while providing freelancers the tools required in succeeding as an external team member. The SaaS product will provide businesses direct access to OneSpace’s trained on-demand freelance talent as well as a toolset for integrating internal teams with virtual teams. This hence simplifies administrative tools to a great extent, adding infrastructure to assist the onboarding of internal teams. The company plans to release the self-service version of its platform to enterprise clients by mid-2016. As of now, OneSpace claims two proprietary, patent-pending technologies:

• QualitySmart, which is a data-driven quality assurance algorithm used by OneSpace to predict the quality of freelancer work submissions
• TrustScore, which is a performance scoring and rating system assigned to freelancers based on the quality outcome of work submitted through the platform

“We’ve known Stephanie and co-founder Ryan Noble for more than ten years. Our history with them, and OneSpace’s track record, gives us the confidence to support future ambitions. The company’s leadership has established a clear path to success,” said Tom Hillman, general partner, Lewis & Clark Ventures. “We strive to invest in businesses that are enriching the lives of others, and aiding in OneSpace’s product advancement is improving access to a flexible, virtual workforce and the health of the global workforce as a whole.” Until now, OneSpace’s talent network of upto 5,00,000 freelancers has facilitated more than 120 million assignments for prominent clients such as eBay, Facebook, Hallmark, Orbitz, Overstock, Sears and Staples. The Series B funding will enable OneSpace to take its game ahead facilitating a rapid growth and go-to-market strategy for its SaaS product offering. The company plans to continue offering managed services for enterprises that rely on external experts to manage their cloud-based talent. OneSpace’s announcement comes at a time when the freelance economy is not simply the wave of the future, but very much part of the present. According to a study by the Freelancers Union, there are 53 million Americans – 34 percent of the US workforce – currently working as freelancers. Moreover, according to Oxford Workforce’s 2020 Report, 83 percent of companies will increase their use of flexible workforces over the next three years. This transformative shift in the characteristics of America’s workforce driven by new technologies would make it easier for large enterprises to find and deploy a talent pool flexibly. This means a freelance lifestyle coupled with added professionals. Sounds like a good deal!