WayUp Secures $18.5M in Series B Funding to Help Companies Crack the Code on Hiring Millennials

NEW YORK, March 23, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- WayUp, the leading job marketplace connecting students and recent grads with companies looking to hire them, today announced it raised $18.5 million in a Series B funding round led by Trinity Ventures, with additional participation from existing investors, including General Catalyst, BoxGroup, Lerer-Hippeau Ventures, Index Ventures, SV Angel, Female Founders Fund, Axel Springer, CAA Ventures, and OurCrowd. With this investment, Trinity General Partner Karan Mehandru has joined the WayUp board of directors. To date, the company has raised $27.5 million in funding since its founding in July 2014. 

Originally a job and internship marketplace for college students, 15% of WayUp's user base is now considered "recent graduates" looking for their second or even third full-time job. As a result, WayUp's team confirmed its original thought: that the platform could be much more than just a college job board, and that its user base would benefit from continuing to use WayUp even after they graduate. The latest funding round will accelerate WayUp's ongoing efforts to expand its platform and services to recent graduates, while continuing to double down on college students. WayUp will also continue investment in the development of advanced machine learning and personalization technologies by growing its engineering team to further improve the experience for users and employers.

"Our vision at WayUp goes beyond finding students awesome job opportunities. As recent graduates continue to use the platform beyond graduation, we're excited to grow with them," said Liz Wessel, CEO and co-founder of WayUp. "It's typical for millennials to change jobs multiple times in their early career as they hone in on their unique skill sets and passions, yet there wasn't a 'smart' job platform or marketplace out there that catered to helping them make a thoughtful next move."

"Everyone is sick of scrolling through hundreds of links to find positions relevant to their experience and passion. Technology offers millennials a personalized approach in almost every other aspect of their lives, and we are here to do that for their careers," said JJ Fliegelman, CTO and co-founder of WayUp. "Over the next two years, WayUp is aiming to bring an entirely new level of personalization to our product using machine learning, in a way no platform has ever done before."

"Traditional job boards and recruiting marketplaces have always led with quantity over quality and are lagging at understanding and meeting the needs of millennials, early career professionals, and the next generation of students entering the workforce," said Karan Mehandru, General Partner at Trinity Ventures. "WayUp is filling that gap by quickly becoming the trusted destination for candidates and employers who crave personalization and quality based on experience and skills. After coming off a phenomenal year with 640% revenue growth and 30,000 students signing up every week, the company is poised to win the hearts and minds of students and early professionals everywhere, and disrupt the massive recruiting market. Trinity is proud to fuel the next phase of growth for Wayup and bolster the inspiring vision and mission of Liz, JJ, and the entire WayUp team."

Currently, WayUp has over 3.5 million users and over 300,000 companies who have received applicants on WayUp, from Fortune 500's to small startups and local businesses.

About WayUp
WayUp is the leading online job marketplace exclusively for U.S. college students and recent grads. Launched in September 2014, WayUp is the only site where employers can post a job to a targeted (and filtered) audience of students at any U.S. college. WayUp currently has more than 3.5 million profiles of students and recent grads who represent 5,300 campuses in the U.S., with 25-30 thousand students signing up each week. WayUp works with startups to Fortune 500 companies with innovative approaches in the way in which they recruit millennial talent, and places 1 in every 3 applicants in a job. https://www.wayup.com/

About Trinity Ventures
Trinity Ventures is a top-tier venture capital firm combining business insight, practical expertise and a personal touch to help start-ups win big. For over eleven funds, Trinity has helped passionate entrepreneurs with breakthrough ideas transform markets and lives. Trinity's investment team takes a collaborative approach and believes in personal engagement, mutual respect and goal alignment to deliver out-sized returns to entrepreneurs and investors. The firm invests in early stage technology companies with emphases on Cloud, Digital Media, Social Commerce and Entertainment, and Software-as-a-Service. To learn more visit: www.trinityventures.com.

Media Contact:
[email protected]  
212-334-9753 ext 103

SOURCE WayUp

Related Links

https://www.wayup.com