Workstream, Which Makes Texting-Based Hiring Tools, Raises An Additional $60 Million

SMU alumnus Desmond Lim is co-founder and CEO of HR software startup Workstream. Workstream has raised an additional $60 million in fresh capital to help it expand to even more industries that employ hourly workers. The five-year-old San Francisco-based startup announced the fundraise on Thursday and is calling it an “extension” to the $48 million Series B round it raised in August 2021. Desmond shared that to pay for his SMU undergraduate degree, he took the money he saved up tutoring in high school and pooled it with two friends to start a no-frills Thai restaurant where he hired dozens of part-time staffers. For workers like them, Desmond believes the existing tools for hiring and HR are not good enough. Instead of spending the working hours in front of their computers, hourly workers and their managers are likely to only have their phone on hand. That is why Workstream’s hiring tools are based around texting. Desmond said the primary impetus of the capital is to expand the sales and marketing team further in order to reach more prospective customers in spaces such as retail, hospitality and healthcare.

Forbes (Sep 29)
Forbes (Sep 29)