A jobs board that helps entry-level workers find available shifts at fulfillment centers and event venues has raised $20 million in a Series A round. The financing resulted in a valuation of $120 million after-money.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the turnover rate for warehouses is more than 40%. A majority of warehouse operators say they can't find enough labor.
Shebat was a founding member of the buddingUberEats division after a one and a half year stint at McMaster-Carr. He met the second co- founder of the company through OnDeck. Buddiga was previously a product operations analyst at Zenefits.
“During the pandemic, a lot of changes happened on a macro level that made Traba’s creation the perfect timing … Deemed ‘essential workers’ during the pandemic, warehouse workers finally experienced what increased flexibility looked like and want to return to the workforce with more flexibility, pay transparency and quality work,” Shebat said. “During economic crisis and recessions, warehouses have even more uncertainty on their order volume. Cash-constrained and risk averse, they have a hard time predicting full-time workforce needs. Therefore, they start relying on temp labor more so than they do when they can predict order volume and customer behavior.”
Open shifts at distribution centers, warehouses and event venues can be found with the help of the Traba system. Employers using Traba can rate workers and workers using contractor profiles can rate workers.
The image is titled "Traa."
Shebat said that Traba is a vet. The platform tries to shield workers from bad actors by giving company ratings. One of the highest injury rates among warehouse workers is estimated to be 5.1 per 100 full time workers.
We have a minimum wage of $13 on our platform, even though this is very entry level work, where most workers are making minimum wage in their alternative jobs. The average wage last month was $16. It's self-vets for hirers that tend to treat workers better. We have turned away companies that did not have proper standards, such as having no A/C in a hot warehouse. We do a lot of work to make sure they get amazing workers, so we want to make sure the worker has a great experience as well.
Workers can find shifts based on where they prefer to work and how long they work. The platform fills the shifts that companies pay for.
Shebat said that automation was the biggest value-added for the technical decision-maker. Paper timesheets need to be filed and cross- checked against the agency invoice, the invoice needs to be filed with accounting and then paid, and there's little reporting visibility for decision makers. Time tracking is done in the worker app, which means that timesheets are automatically updated and visible in the business app immediately after the shift, and invoices are created from these timesheets after business approval.
Shebat highlighted the instant payments feature that allows workers to make payments to their bank accounts in as little as 15 minutes after work. Businesses can now post shifts that give priority access to workers who have proven themselves before, thanks to a new capability called favorites-first.
Some of the major staffing firms in the US are listed by Shebat. He is aware of rivals in the tech sector. Shiftsmart raised 95 million dollars in December on the back of a network of 500,000 contractors.
When I Work, Fountain, Seasoned, Homebase, and Workiz raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture financing in the last year. Jyve, which connected gig economy workers with retailers, shut down after raising $35 million. There are lots of things in the way of capital.
It is not certain if that will change in light of the economy. Shebat believes that Traba is well positioned for growth. He expects revenue to increase 5 times over the next year because of the 12,000 workers on the platform. By the end of the year, the workforce will be increased to 50 from 22.
Shebat said that they plan to expand to Texas and other light industrial states. Dynamic pricing, communications tools between worker and business, automations for efficiency gains and financial solutions to workers are some of the improvements we are creating.
Traba has raised $23.6 million so far.
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