Seasoned, a Startup Focused on Helping Restaurants Hire Workers Quickly, Nabs $19 Million

By Adriaan Brits | Tuesday, 09 November 2021 | Startup, Food and Beverage

Seasoned, the startup company that helps service industry businesses hire hourly workers quickly, announced today it has secured $18.7 million in a Series A business funding round. Horizons Ventures led the business funding efforts, while TPG Growth and other business investors also took part in the Series A business funding round.

Helping the Service Industry Hire More Quickly and Efficiently 

The recruitment startup company plans to use the fresh funding to drive its expansion into new markets and continue to improve its product offerings. The raised funding comes on the heels of a $12 million seed funding round that closed in June. The startup company has raised a total of $30 million year-to-date (YTD).

Seasoned introduced its next-gen mobile recruitment and hiring solution for restaurants last year. The focus is to help more than 300 national and local restaurant brands, which collectively manage over 100,000 locations across the US, hire hourly workers quicker.

"We know from every restaurant owner that we talk to that hiring is their number one challenge, and with millions of people searching for jobs, we can make a real impact. This funding will help us expand to new markets, further develop our products, and ultimately get more people employed,” said Ware Sykes, Chief Executive Officer of Seasoned.

Founded in 2017, the startup company identified a big market opportunity as restaurant brands continue to cite hiring as their biggest obstacle to achieving business growth. As a result, Seasoned developed a platform that helps owners hire more quickly and efficiently, which also allows unemployed users to find available hourly job positions.

"We're in a unique situation; restaurants cannot hire fast enough, but millions of people are still out of work. In Seasoned, we see a huge opportunity to address that challenge at a time when the industry needs it. We're looking forward to an exciting year of growth," said Bart Swanson at Horizons Ventures.

The San Francisco-based startup company allows for industry employees to look for newly-listed job positions, schedule appointments, and get in touch with other employees to seek guidance. Furthermore, Seasoned also launched an app-based tool for seekers that decreases friction, reduces hiring time, cuts restaurant expenses, and more.

Following the COVID-19 outbreak last year, Seasoned launched “The Seasoned Relief Project.” The aim of this campaign was to help restaurants raise money with monetary donations and provide new opportunities for workers who lost their jobs. The project also allowed all community members to share their experiences with the pandemic.

According to the National Restaurant Association (NRA), restaurant employment in the post-pandemic world has plummeted to about 2.5 million jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic wiped off $240 billion in industry sales in 2020 alone. This business sector continues to face pandemic-induced challenges, with hundreds of restaurants still closed.

The NRA estimates that 60% of US citizens think that restaurants are an essential part of their lifestyle and believes that the industry will fully recover.

Summary

California-based startup company Seasoned announced it has raised $18.7 million in a Series A funding round from Horizons Ventures. Raised business funding will be leveraged to fuel expansion into new markets and for product development.

About the Author

Adriaan Brits

An analyst of global affairs, Adriaan has an MSC from Oxford, with diverse interests in the digital economy, entertainment, and business. He is a specialist trainer in advanced analytics and media.