Roleshare, a London-based job-sharing marketplace and management platform, has secured a $1.2M in a seed round of funding led by Plug and Play VC.
Other investors who participated include Forward VC, Rethink Capital Partners, Techstars VC, Invested, Phil Chambers, David Blake, Athena Karp, Roger Wade, Dave Pell, Richard Fearn, Vuyiswa M’Cwabeni, Scott Mackin, Brian Lo, Laurent Christen, Kevin Withane, Ayesha Ofori, Tessy Antony de Nassau, Frank Floessel, Catherine and Jonathan Lenson, Neha Tanna, Samantha Johnson, Alex Macdonald, Elissa Grey, Abby Wong, Adam Howe, Harmeet Rehal, Nicholas Macdonald, Daniel Afan-Williams, Henry De Zoete, Matthew Bell, Andrew Jackson, Aarish Shah, Matthew Roberts, Jean-Michel Gauthier, David Buxton, Christopher Judd, Christopher Jones, Sam Marks, Scott Dann, and angels from Lumus Investment Collective.
Roleshare will use the investment to accelerate its technology platform and product development and expand its sales and marketing efforts into new markets.
The need for job flexibility is greater as more women returning to the workforce seek parity with their male counterparts. According to a study by McKinsey, $12T could be added to GDP by 2025 if women played an identical role in labour markets to men.
Talent marketplace
Co-founded by Sophie Smallwood and David Smallwood, Roleshare is a talent marketplace matching professionals to co-apply and share full-time jobs, driving a positive impact toward gender equality, economic growth, and well-being.
This approach allows companies to retain employees who love their jobs but need or want a more flexible role to accommodate family and personal needs or other interests and passions. As a result, employers also benefit from increased productivity and well-being.
“Many talented people are forced out of their dream jobs because they can’t or don’t want traditional employment anymore. Roleshare makes it possible for companies to keep these employees and benefit from their diverse perspectives, joint skills, and mutual accountability,” says Sophie Smallwood, co-founder of Roleshare.
The company has already attracted some high-profile clients, including JP Morgan, BP, and Alphabet’s X Moonshot Factory, where pilot programs are underway.
“We’re just beginning, but Roleshare could make it possible for enterprises to better retain, redeploy, and hire 3 billion women and employees of diverse backgrounds and circumstances globally by normalizing and scaling this sharing of roles,” says Smallwood.
“Roleshare has the potential to redefine how we think about work and career growth. In the current workers market and with changing expectations from GenZ, giving employees flexibility is more important than ever. Dave and Sophie are incredible and, with their first traction, show that the sharing economy has arrived in HR. We’re thrilled to be part of such an innovative and mission-driven company and are looking forward to scaling their solution globally,” says Carolin Wais, Director and EMEA IC Member at Plug and Play Ventures, an early-stage investor in Roleshare.
