Passionfruit has closed a $9m Series A to scale their platform for independent work

July, 2024 – Passionfruit, is a SaaS marketplace connecting corporate teams with pre vetted freelance talent. The platform enables freelancers to independently pursue a self directed career and offers increased flexibility for large companies to source talent outside of their existing organisations.

• Passionfruit has closed a $9m USD Series A funding round to scale our platform for independent work! Total funds (incl. Seed round) raised now stand at $13.3m.
• The investment round has been led by Seaya with participation from all major Seed investors (firstminute Capital, Playfair Capital, Cornerstone, FJ Labs and Portfolio Ventures)
•  ⁠This round of funding will allow Passionfruit to continue developing world class products to enhance collaboration between independent workers and businesses, expand further into North America, as well as adding focus on software for businesses to track progress in real time across their entire growth planning, execution & reporting cycles.
• ⁠Raffi (CEO), Issah (CPO) and the whole Passionfruit leadership team are on the lookout for exceptional full-time talent to hire for the next stage of our journey; across sales, marketing product and engineering.

Passionfruit has raised $9m in Series A funding from prominent investors including Cornerstone VC, Playfair, firstminute capital, FJ Labs and Portfolio Ventures. All following their initial investment at Seed. The Series A round was led by Seaya Ventures.

The company was founded in 2021 by founders Raffi Salaam and Issah Abdul Moomin, Oxbridge graduates and alumni of WPP’s fellowship program formerly working for companies including Inter Miami (David Beckham’s US football team) and leading ad agencies GroupM and WPP.

Founded out of a realisation that, in the 21st century, both freelancers and companies are seeking a more efficient, direct and agile way to work with one another, Passionfruit has grown to offer a AI-powered platform that radically simplifies a company’s ability to discover, arrange and engage vetted independent talent, initially in Marketing, while also providing on-project collaboration tooling, empowering all parties to plan, implement and report on entire work-streams within a single, streamlined platform.

Historically, getting external support from a classical big agency, be it in Marketing, Consulting or Market Research, has been too expensive for the majority of businesses, and so most companies are forced to get by with stretched and non-specialised internal teams.

Growth targets are missed, employees are left burned out and market share is eroded as companies don’t have the right resources in place to compete.

With the best of the next generation’s knowledge workers increasingly striking out to become their own freelance boss, businesses of all sizes are sensing the opportunity to go outside of traditional big agency models, drive down cost and drive up results.

Yet circumventing these legacy solutions has been difficult for organisations to do at scale, due to the manual nature of talent discovery, a lack of workflow management and procedural memory getting lost. Passionfruit’s platform gives businesses a one-stop solution through which they can get the exact support they need at a price and in the place that suits their needs and means.

Raffi, Co Founder and CEO says:

“We started our business because we believed that the next generation deserved a new way to operate their professional lives, and we realised that if we could reimagine career infrastructure end-to-end for the 21st century, businesses would also be enabled to operate in a more agile way, one that drives more efficient growth.”

Issah Co Founder and CPO added:

“Work doesn’t work well for too many people. Businesses often struggle to bring the right expertise to their most important challenges, and freelancers face barriers to accessing meaningful opportunities. This funding allows us to continue building the operating system that empowers independent workers and businesses to collaborate efficiently and productively.”

This round of funding will allow Passionfruit to continue developing world class products to enhance collaboration between independent workers and businesses, expand further into North America, as well as adding focus on software for businesses to track progress in real time across their entire growth planning, execution & reporting cycles.

Rodney Appiah, Managing Partner at Cornerstone VC, said:

“Raffi and Issah have that rare combination that we look for in founding teams – big vision, strong work ethic and execution focus without ever taking themselves too seriously! Since backing the business at pre seed, it’s been fantastic to see the firm gain momentum in new markets and with larger companies ready to embrace the future of work. We are delighted to be part of their latest round and look forward to seeing the business continue to re-imagine independent work for today’s knowledge workforce”

Beatriz Gonzalez, Founder and Managing Partner at Seaya, said:

“As tech investors we believe in the opportunity for innovation to bring real change and disruption to the workplace.  We have been looking for a chance to participate in this revolution;  Passionfruit, led by Raffi and Issah, have created an unprecedented value proposition connecting tier I talent with leading global brands. We are looking forward to supporting this amazing team in their vision to break down barriers and contribute to a fundamental change in the way we work.”

For more information visit Passionfruit.