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§ Private Profile · San Francisco, CA, USA
Digital marketplace connecting businesses with local hourly workers for flexible staffing in food service, hospitality, and logistics.
Instawork has raised $148.0M across 5 funding rounds.
Key people at Instawork.
Instawork was founded in 2016 by Sumir Meghani (Founder/CEO).
Instawork has raised $148.0M in total across 5 funding rounds.
Instawork is a San Francisco, CA-based digital marketplace that connects businesses with local hourly workers for flexible shifts across sectors like food service, hospitality, and logistics, facilitating bookings via its mobile application. The platform allows businesses to quickly fill temporary and permanent roles, while workers find shifts matching their skills, operating in over 40 markets across the U.S. and Canada with a network exceeding 7 million workers. The company has raised over $160 million in total funding, with a recent $60 million Series D round contributing to its expansion, and maintains an employee base of 357 to 500 individuals. Key investors include Benchmark, Y Combinator, Spark Capital, Google Ventures (GV), Greylock, and Craft Ventures. Instawork was founded in 2015 by Sumir Meghani.
Key people at Instawork.
Instawork is a flexible work platform that connects businesses with hourly workers through a digital marketplace, primarily serving industries like food & beverage, hospitality, and warehouse/logistics. Founded in 2015/2016, it offers an AI-powered staffing solution that helps businesses quickly fill temporary, seasonal, temp-to-hire, and permanent roles across more than 25 U.S. markets. Instawork addresses the high turnover and unpredictable demand challenges in hourly labor markets by providing workers with flexible shift opportunities and employers with reliable, vetted talent, supporting over one million workers and thousands of businesses[1][2][6].
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Instawork was founded in 2015 by Sumir Meghani (CEO) and Saureen Shah (former CTO), inspired by Meghani’s personal experience witnessing his parents struggle to find workers during demand surges. The idea emerged from conversations with restaurant owners who faced difficulties hiring temporary staff despite customer demand. Initially starting as a restaurant job board, the founders pivoted to a mobile-first, Uber-inspired flexible labor marketplace after joining Y Combinator’s Summer 2015 batch. Debarshi Kar replaced Shah as CTO in 2017. Early traction came from businesses dissatisfied with traditional staffing agencies, including notable clients like Google, Stanford University, and Target[2][3][4].
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Instawork rides the growing trend of the gig economy and flexible work, particularly in hourly labor sectors historically underserved by technology. The timing is critical due to tight labor markets, high turnover rates (50%-80% in hospitality and warehousing), and increasing worker demand for autonomy and flexibility. Instawork’s AI-driven platform addresses inefficiencies in traditional staffing agencies and manual hiring processes, influencing how hourly workforces are managed and empowering workers with more control over their schedules. Its economic research division also contributes valuable labor market insights beyond government data[2][3][6].
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Instawork is positioned to deepen its impact by expanding AI capabilities, broadening geographic reach, and enhancing worker training and development. Trends such as continued labor shortages, rising demand for flexible work, and advances in AI-driven workforce management will shape its growth. Instawork’s influence may evolve from a staffing platform to a comprehensive labor ecosystem that integrates workforce analytics, training, and long-term career development for hourly workers, further modernizing the hourly labor market and local economies.
This trajectory ties back to its founding mission: to empower both businesses and workers through technology-driven flexibility and reliability in hourly work.
Instawork has raised $148.0M across 5 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $60.0M Series D in May 2023.
Instawork was founded in 2016 by Sumir Meghani (Founder/CEO).
Instawork has raised $148.0M in total across 5 funding rounds.
Instawork's investors include Gautam Gupta, 9Yards Capital, Acrew Capital, Addition, Andreessen Horowitz, Benchmark, Bond, CoFound Partners, Energize Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Greylock, Insight Partners.
