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Helpster team. Photo credit: Helpster.

Helpster, a Bangkok-based startup that finds temporary and permanent blue-collar employees for businesses, announced closing a US$2.1 million seed round today. Indonesia’s Convergence Ventures led the round with Wavemaker Partners and other investors participating.

Helpster sorts through applicants who fill in data through the app. It then matches them to companies looking for help. Businesses can range from food and beverage to hospitality, events, and logistics. Employers receive a list of suitable workers from Helpster before assigning them tasks to complete. Workers then get assigned tasks and report to their employers via the Helpster app.

Jobs can be short-term or long-term, depending on the employer. If the task is a temporary two-day job, for example, employers must disclose this in the listing. The same goes with long-term job openings.

“We typically see that some workers prefer these temporary ‘on-demand’ shifts, as it gives them flexibility to work whenever they want. It’s quite popular with students and people looking to earn extra money,” Mathew Ward, global CEO of Helpster tells Tech in Asia.

These tasks depend on the employer. For example, a small restaurant owner will assign employees to wash dishes while a logistics company could put them to carrying items.

Built in Bangkok

Mathew Ward and John Srivorakul co-founded the startup in April 2016 and took on roles as global CEO and CTO, respectively. They recently hired Pear Moskwa as Helpster’s Thailand CEO.

“Traditional methods for blue-collar workers to hear about employment such as word of mouth, job boards or agencies weren’t fast enough and just didn’t deliver the quality of workers these companies required. Helpster is changing that,” said Mathew.

It’s worth highlighting the management team’s past endeavors. Neither of them is new to the tech industry. Mathew was CEO of Admax Network, as well as head of APAC for Lotame.

John co-founded Admax along with Mathew. He also co-founded Ensogo (sold to Living Social), Ardent Capital, and aCommerce with his brothers Paul and Tom Srivorakul, who also invest in Helpster and are current advisors of the company.

Pear was previously head of GrabTaxi Thailand and CEO of Groupon Thailand.

The startup will use the funds to accelerate product development and support its expansion in Indonesia.

According to Mathew, traction has been significant after launching in Thailand, although he doesn’t specify any numbers. Helpster has quickly grown to a company of 35 in Bangkok and Jakarta.

This post Thailand’s startup pioneers are back with a new venture that helps blue-collar workers appeared first on Tech in Asia.

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