JOB TODAY is a fast-growing technology company and Europe’s leading mobile jobs marketplace. The company has made a bet on digitizing recruitment with its mobile-first approach, doing away with clunky CVs, and introducing a built-in messaging platform to make communication between employers and applicants more immediate. In the short time since launch in 2015, JOB TODAY attracted two hundred thousand employers, processed 35 million job applications, and brought on board world-class investors.
The company today announces a $35 million gross media deal with Europe’s major broadcasters represented by RTL Germany, German Media Pool, and Atresmedia. RTL Group owns RTL Germany and holds a strategic minority shareholding in Atresmedia. With interests in 60 television channels and 31 radio stations, RTL Group reaches audiences around the world and owns stakes in TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Croatia and South East Asia.
(Featured Image: Eugene Mizin and Polina Montano, JOB TODAY’s co-founders / Image Credit: Olivier Minaire)
This new partnership builds on a successful earlier investment in JOB TODAY by Atresmedia in Spain, as well as an investment by Channel 4 (UK).
“Finding a job is a vital necessity for millions of youths and general population all across Europe. It’s about time we leverage technology to solve a very human problem. We’re disrupting a $270 billion global blue collar recruitment market, most of which is still offline, and the incumbents simply cannot respond quickly enough.” – Polina Montano, JOB TODAY’s COO
Over one million job applications are submitted to local employers via the company’s apps every single week. Company’s mobile apps have become popular with small businesses such as restaurants and shops; the service has also attracted some of the biggest brands including McDonald’s, EAT, Pizza Express, Holiday Inn and Benefit Cosmetics. With support from the leading broadcasters in the UK, Germany, and Spain, JOB TODAY is in a unique position to accelerate its Pan-European growth.
“We’re making progress towards our dream: build a place where 100 million people come every single day to make their lives better” – Eugene Mizin, JOB TODAY’s co-founder and CEO.
How will the $35m of media be spent?
In the short time since launch in 2015, JOB TODAY attracted two hundred thousand employers, processed 35 million job applications and brought on board major brands including McDonald’s, EAT, Pizza Express and Holiday Inn. We have a strong track record of partnering with broadcasters and media companies as we are committed to building a powerful consumer brand. This $35m media for equity deal will allow us to solidify our position as market leader in Europe and ramp up our presence in Germany.
How’s the company developed since the latest funding announcement in Nov’16?
We have been focused on extending our position as market leader by investing in marketing and building liquidity on the marketplace. In the UK for example we have a TV advertising campaign running as well as a major presence on London’s public transport system. If you live in London you are likely see our brand a number of times every week.
In terms of the company performance, we have continued to grow: we have processed over 15m job applications since November and over one million job applications are now submitted to local employers via the company’s apps every single week. We’ve also seen more national chains and corporate customers switch to JOB TODAY because of the growing liquidity of candidates we have on the platform.
So is JOB TODAY like a recruitment version of Tinder?
We’ve been referred to as a ‘Tinder for jobs’ and as a ‘Whatsapp for recruitment’. We are a mobile-first business with an app that brings immediacy and removes all the friction. We put businesses and jobseekers in direct communication – allowing jobs to be filled in 24 hours.
Who uses the JOB TODAY app? Is it particularly popular with younger workers?
We are solving a common problem for businesses and jobseekers. So far we’ve focused on the hospitality, services, and retail sectors – which has attracted many younger workers. 75% of our users are younger than 35 years old. However, the potential market is much broader.
Which countries are you active in?
We’ve mainly focused on UK and Spain, where we’re the leading service provider in the sector of mobile hiring. Our next step will be ramping up our presence in Germany with support from new media partners.
Do you have other competitors in Europe? Are you be competing with other startups?
Recruitment is a highly competitive industry, but the opportunity JOB TODAY is pursuing is to bring recruitment online for hundreds of thousands of businesses that today rely on print newspapers and walk-ins to recruit. 70% of hiring in hospitality and retails is happening OFFLINE today. And according to a recent survey, 57% of Germans relied on newspaper ads as the primary source for job search. The potential market is enormous – the global blue collar staffing industry is worth $270bn sector.
What makes you think blue collar recruitment industry is broken?
Much of the industry still relies on classified ads in newspapers. This is archaic when you consider media consumption patterns – we look at our phones up to 80 times a day while newspaper readership has been in decline for the last 15 years. For thousands of SMEs hiring the right person can be a very time-consuming, stressful and expensive process. Many businesses are forced to resort to an inefficient combination of recruitment agencies, online classifieds and walk-ins. Meanwhile, as a jobseeker, finding work can mean hitting the pavement to hand out stacks of CVs, sifting through classifieds or lengthy agency applications. Job Today solves this problem with a platform that’s quick, easy and free to use for all.
When do you plan to launch in the US?
We are building a European market leader at the moment, and will expand to other markets including the US in the future.
Can you give us some background on your investors?
We’re grateful to have on board some of the most successful investors in Europe. Mangrove Capital Partners, one of the leading early-stage investors in Europe. It is based in Luxembourg and its portfolio includes major freemium success stories including Skype and Wix.com. Accel is an American firm best known for being one of the earliest investors in Facebook. Flint Capital is an international venture firm focused on enterprise software and machine learning tech, with offices in Palo Alto, Tel Aviv and Berlin. Felix Capital is a venture firm focused on digital lifestyle and its portfolio includes Deliveroo and Farfetch.
Where did the idea for JOB TODAY come from?
Eugene and Polina met through a common social circle. At the time, Eugene worked in venture capital and Polina ran a retail business operating a chain of petrol stations for Shell. One Friday evening, Polina invited Eugene for a dinner with friends. During the evening, Polina received a call from one of the managers at her petrol stations saying that someone was not going to show up for work the next day and that they needed to find a replacement fast.
Polina shared with Eugene how much of a pain it was to find someone on a short notice. And she wondered if there was a tech solution to this problem. As they dug into it over the coming days, to their surprise they realized that there was nothing on the market that directly addressed the problem for a small business owner.
This was a real problem they understood and appreciated from different perspectives. Polina had a strong intuition about customer needs based on her experience running retail businesses. Eugene – a strong intuition about consumer technology and product development.
Rather than just build a new job board, they decided that the real opportunity was to build a product that fits the lifestyle of small businesses and jobseekers and gets them into direct communication with each other very quickly. That approach combined with making it 100% mobile and focusing on jobs in the hospitality, retail and services sectors is what separates JOB TODAY from every other startup in this space.
What are the roles of each of the co-founders? And what are your backgrounds?
Eugene Mizin is a co-founder and CEO at JOB TODAY, Europe’s leading mobile hiring app that helps businesses find staff in 24 hours. Before founding JOB TODAY, Eugene was an investor at Mangrove Capital, a venture firm behind Skype and Wix. Prior to that, Eugene developed internet consumer products in San Francisco and London, leading product development at Skype, and eBay before that. Eugene began his career at First Union Bank (now Wells Fargo) and earned an MBA from Georgetown University.
Polina Montano is a co-founder and COO at JOB TODAY, responsible for operations and sales. Before founding JOB TODAY, Mrs. Montano achieved success as an entrepreneur in retail with a highly successful Shell franchise, and one in luxury fashion. Earlier in her career, she worked in recruitment at Bain Consulting where she oversaw on-campus recruitment activities. Mrs. Montano earned her Masters degree in Entrepreneurship from the University of Luxembourg.
