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The individuals who work on transport vessels are important to world commerce, however they nonetheless expertise plenty of arcane hiring processes. Many lack transparency about necessary issues like pay and even the working circumstances of they ships they may spend months on. Maritime recruitment platform Seafair was created to unravel these issues. It vets seafarers and transport operators and makes use of matching algorithms to suit crew members with the precise vessels.
The corporate introduced at present it has raised $5.7 million led by Common Catalyst, with participation from FirstMinute Capital, Sign Ventures, TA Ventures, SV Angel, SpeedInvest and returning investor FJ Labs. This brings Seafair’s whole funding to about $7 million.
Seafair was launched late final 12 months by Agapitos Diakogiannis, who was born and raised in Greece, and its present shoppers embrace one of many world’s prime 100 purchasing firms.
“Greece is among the world superpowers in transport, so after I was working in consulting, I principally targeted on maritime initiatives. I grew to become near the trade and actually fell in love with it.”
After consulting, Diakogiannis frolicked in enterprise capital, had been he noticed how labor marketplaces are disrupting industries like building, manufacturing, oil and fuel.
Diakogiannis realized he had the community to handle a big market alternative, however there was one more reason for beginning Seafair. After speaking to seafarers, he realized how opaque the hiring course of is. Many individuals have bother discovering jobs despite the fact that their labor is in excessive demand they usually don’t know so much about working circumstances or fee earlier than accepting a placement.
Seafair matches employees with transport firms primarily based on their background, abilities and efficiency, and makes use of matching algorithms to make the method of filling vacancies extra environment friendly. It additionally offers vessel operators with human sources software program that helps them consolidate knowledge that’s in any other case siloed in numerous ERP platforms and spreadsheets. Seafair is at present targeted on senior officer roles, like chief engineers and ship masters, since these positions are those which have probably the most certification and coaching to trace.
Transport firms are primarily based world wide, however about 50% of seafarers come from Ukraine and the Philippines, in order that they sometimes depend on businesses to employees vessels. Since businesses depend on hiring commissions to earn money, nonetheless, they may not all the time present one of the best suits for openings, Diakogiannis mentioned.
Seafair offers a digitized and extra clear model of conventional businesses (and is licensed to function as an company in Ukraine and the Philippines, with extra nations deliberate).
First, seafarers add their CVs on-line, then Seafair runs a collection of background checks and on-line assessments. If it decides somebody is an effective match for a vessel, the platform schedules interviews. If they’re employed, Seafair begins the deployment course of, together with digital contracts.
The platform additionally verifies employers and the vessels beneath their administration earlier than they’ll begin utilizing Seafair. The startup’s HR software program consists of instruments to handle funds, insurance coverage, schedules and relaxation hours. A few of its options personalized to the maritime trade embrace alerts for when a seafarer’s certifications are going to run out, and wage suggestions to assist improve retention charges.
Seafair’s new funding might be used to construct extra expertise for seafarer vetting and increase in markets together with Germany, Nordic nations and america.
In an announcement, Common Catalyst managing director Niko Bonatsos mentioned, “The maritime trade is among the final untapped frontiers. One wants deep trade insights, an bold imaginative and prescient and a decided workforce to achieve a market like this—and we noticed all of the above in Seafair.”
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