HR and benefits platform Oyster raises $4.2 million

Oyster has announced $4.2 million in seed financing. Leading the round is London-based Connect Ventures, with participation from Sorenson Ventures, Kima Ventures, and Transferwise Co-founder and Chairman, Taavet Hinrikus, among others.

Established in 2019, Oyster which is still in ’emerging’ mode is a distributed talent enablement platform that lets companies hire, manage payroll, and give local benefits to their full-time employees anywhere in the world. Its SaaS platform makes it easy for companies to extend full-time, full-fledged employment, with all the benefits and perks, to their valued workers anywhere in the world.

“We are excited to partner with Tony and Jack at such a decisive moment for the future of work. In the wake of COVID-19, work from home is going to be even more pervasive, and both companies and individuals are going to want to look to the whole planet for talent and job opportunities, respectively. But the experience of international hiring is currently broken. Oyster is pairing the infrastructure and software necessary to reduce the friction, building a SaaS product that talents and employers will love.”- Pietro Bezza, General Partner of Connect Ventures.

“As an entrepreneur having built global businesses and hired teams in over 50 countries, I’ve been shocked by the level of complexity and cost required to hire people in other countries. The COVID-19 outbreak has led to more companies adopting a remote-work model than ever before. Now that we’ve been thrown into the deep end, we expect companies to embrace a fully remote workforce moving forward. We founded Oyster to break down logistical boundaries and make it possible for companies to hire top talent, regardless of location.” – Tony Jamous, co-founder and CEO, Oyster.