Wethos Raises $3 Million in Funding to Scale Freelance Platform
When we started Wethos in 2016, it was at the height of the presidential election.
We left advertising to launch a platform where people who were tackling tough problems could tap into the best talent in our network to accelerate progress.
Two years flew by as we helped organizations with big missions build brands, websites, and campaigns to increase awareness and support for the hard work they do. In 2018 we launched Wethos Teams, and quickly deployed more than 100 responsive teams of cross-functional marketing specialists in less than one year.
Our teams have since accomplished a ton — everything from combating voter suppression, to raising awareness for criminal justice reform, to promoting early voting on college campuses through full 360 media campaigns on Snapchat, Instagram, bus stops, billboards, and more.
For countless clients, we’ve seen Wethos Teams act as pop-up digital departments, directly challenging the efficacy of legacy operating systems and presenting a counter-example for how work “should” happen. Especially for those who are leading change and solving some of the world’s biggest challenges, it’s important to have an innovative new way to adapt to society’s most fast-paced communications shift yet.
Every company now needs to react to new platforms, changing algorithms, fake followers, buyable clicks, and an exhausted and weary audience that’s overwhelmed by a tidal wave of media and the profit-at-all-cost mindset that has impacted our literal democracy.
Today, I’m thrilled to announce our new $3M round of funding which will help us scale on-demand Wethos Teams to support more meaningful brands than ever before.
Led by NYC-based Laconia Capital with the participation of Valuestream Ventures, Flybridge Capital, Loup Ventures, Higher Ground Labs, SAP, and other strategic investors, the oversubscribed round came together in just 90 days. The fresh funding will enable us to deploy even more micro-agencies to meet the demand coming from coming from new customers that span across all sectors.
In Laconia’s words: “Wethos is what you’d get if a network, managed marketplace, and future of work platform had a futuristic baby.”
With a workforce that’s increasingly diverse, remote, and craving purpose, we need a new, people-first approach that enables the brightest minds to come together quickly around the right work. It has and always will be our mission to value these entrepreneurs, and to set an example for a company where pay is equal, collaboration is valued over competition, emotional intelligence is a norm, and red tape doesn’t hold back innovation.
Because we believe that when you go out of your way to treat people the best, you attract the best people—period.
As companies struggle to keep up in this rapidly-evolving digital landscape, they’re also confronted with pressure to grow, while staring down the high-risk barrel of hiring a full in-house department or an expensive agency— that’s where Wethos comes in.
Unlike big agencies with siloed departments, expensive overhead, and opaque pricing, our proprietary technology enables us to swiftly scope complex work, curate teams based on each customer’s unique needs, and effectively deploy multi-disciplinary teams in real time. This doesn’t just keep costs in line with our customer’s needs, it puts more money into the pockets of our freelancers.
Ultimately, with more voices around the table and a flexible approach that enables us to put together the exact right team for the work at hand, we believe collaboration will accelerate progress with a new way to work.