By RTN Staff - 4.9.2022
Landed, which bills itself as the first end-to-end recruitment engine for restaurants and other hospitality industries, has raised a $7 million seed round of funding. The new round brings the total amount raised by the San Francisco-based startup to $8.4 million.
The platform works such that blue collar workers download the mobile app and are guided through setting up their Landed profile, which includes short videos plus details on their work experience, location, shift availability, and job goals. Landed’s AI-based intelligent matching technology is designed to matches candidates to best fit jobs and employers near them.
Hiring managers access the Landed Employer portal and input hiring goals and criteria across all locations. Landed then automates the end-to-end recruitment process with its intelligent matching and conversational AI technology: sourcing, vetting, engaging, setting up interviews with, and hiring top-notch candidates. This eliminates manual work for Hiring Managers, delivering dozens of hours of time savings each week while reportedly driving a 3.5x better hiring rate.
Javelin Venture Partners and Blockchain Capital led the round with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners; the founders of Warby Parker, Harry’s, and Allbirds’ Good Friends fund, and the founders of celebrity chef José Andrés’ ThinkFood Group.
Landed has reportedly grown by leaps and bounds over the last year, increasing revenue over 20X since the beginning of 2021. The company claims to have hundreds of top employers on its platform, including Cava, Blaze Pizza, Panera, Chick-fil-A, Taco Bell, and more.
According to a company statement, the funding will be used to help fuel aggressive expansion of Landed’s user base and new product offerings to deliver end-to-end support for hiring at large restaurant and hospitality chains. Landed will also be adding new services for blue collar workers on its platform to promote financial wellness, including fair and transparent financial products such as earned wage access and crypto-enabled bank accounts.
“The restaurant and hospitality industries experienced a one-two punch during the last two years,” said Vivian Wang, founder and CEO of Landed. “It’s a new day for them and the workers supporting these businesses. General Managers are stretched thin and always need to be hiring new team members due to turnover. Landed delivers sourcing and hiring automation that engages the best-fit talent, eliminates manual time-intensive tasks, and weaves diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the employee lifecycle. We will use this new financing to help us build better, continue delivering the best customer service, and efficiently support all employers and candidates who rely on Landed.”
“Staffing shortages across restaurants and hospitality are all over the news. But the truth is that labor has always been an industry-wide issue. Landed has quickly become the one solution that stands head and shoulders above other players in the field. The biggest customers in the industry are recognizing that Landed’s market-leading recruitment software and AI technology helps them break away from competitors, tackle labor shortages head on, and simply put, make their Hiring Managers happy,” said Jed Katz of Javelin Venture Partners. “Vivian drew on her deep expertise to build the most scalable solution for hiring and retaining hourly talent. She is a relentless founder solving this monster challenge and her platform is poised to be the winner in this rapidly growing category.”
Spencer Bogart of Blockchain Capital added, “We’re excited about Vivian’s vision to expand into crypto-enabled fintech offerings and fundamentally improve the livelihoods of a largely underserved consumer: the blue-collar worker.”
