Recruiting marketplace Paraform raises AUD$2 million in pre-seed round

Recruiting marketplace Paraform today announced that it has raised a pre-seed round of AUD$2 million led by Primer Sazze Partners with participation from Twitch co-founders, leadership at Scale AI, and Founders, Inc. 

Paraform enables companies to access a wider pool of quality talent through a variety of cost-competitive recruiters and other untapped networks, and recruiters reap the rewards and freedom of freelancing without the risk of starting their own business. 

Paraform is a solution for both the supply and demand side of hiring. Through its marketplace format, tech companies from Brisbane to Silicon Valley can post bounties for open roles, and anyone – professional recruiter or otherwise – can collect it by successfully referring a candidate. 

The company was founded in 2022, when Australian-raised entrepreneur, John Kim along with his co-founder, Jeffrey Li, recognised the repercussions of layoffs rattling the tech industry in the US. After noticing an influx of technical recruiters who were now open to work in an oversaturated market, they wanted to create an easy and accessible way for people to monetise their professional networks. 

“My goal is to make recruiting as easy as possible. We are empowering recruiters to be independent, be their own entity, have the flexibility and freedom to work whenever they want and earn more per-hire than they make,” said Kim.

“Paraform is a platform that looks to solve a problem for a symbiotic relationship: recruiters and companies. Its co-founders understand the market from both perspectives and have created a marketplace that serves the needs of the greater hiring market. We’re excited to be a part of Paraform’s journey early on, and we can’t wait to see the company make waves in the future of work and recruitment,” added Kasey Roh, Principal at Primer Sazze Partners. 

While Australia’s unemployment rate is sitting at just 3.7 per cent, and the labour market experiencing the tightest conditions in half a century, the tech market has been disproportionately impacted by layoffs. With top tech talent open for opportunities, securing the best candidate for the job will rely more heavily on personal connections and industry expertise than ever before.

“When you look at the greater impact of these tech layoffs, an entire industry of people are at a loss. John and Jeff stumbled upon a need and developed a solution to help provide jobs and shake up a traditional industry. We believe in the power of the Paraform marketplace and the network it’s creating, and are proud to back the company and its positive impact on recruiters and companies alike,” added Kevin Lin, co-founder at Twitch. 

Beyond North America, the founders identified the opportunity for Paraform to operate on a global scale, and have since successfully filled roles from senior software engineer all the way to head of business development in Australia, Singapore and Canada.