Two men met at the Berlin venture builder Atlantic Labs, and the idea they hatched was to put short-term jobs on a phone. Frederik Fahning and Cihan Aksakal, who had earlier founded the local deals site kaufDA, were soon joined by Fritz Trott, a former Rocket Internet manager. That mix, a product mind, a founder who had sold a company, and an operator, became Zenjob.
The pitch was simple. Companies need extra hands for a weekend, a trade fair, a delivery peak. Students and other flexible workers want paid work that fits a timetable. Staffing agencies were slow and paper-heavy. Zenjob built an app to match the two sides in hours.
Press reported revenue of about €60 million in the second pandemic year, a period when temporary work swung hard.
The money followed in steps. A roughly €3 million round in 2016 came from Redalpine and Acton Capital Partners, with 500 Startups and Atlantic Labs. A Series A of about €8 million followed in 2017, and €15 million from AXA Venture Partners in 2018. One secondary account says an earlier Series A in 2016 fell through at the last minute; the claim appears only once, so treat it carefully.
By the time later rounds arrived, including a $50 million growth round led by Aragon and a €45 million raise for expansion, the company had taken in around €107 million. Press reported revenue of about €60 million in the second pandemic year, a period when temporary work swung hard.
That is the real fight in this business. A staffing marketplace takes a small cut of each hour, so growth means volume and volume means constant hiring on both sides. The pandemic shut events and restaurants overnight, which are exactly Zenjob's customers.
The founders chose a plain problem and kept pushing at it for years instead of chasing a fashionable one. The lesson for a first-time founder is to pick a boring market with real daily pain, then stay long enough to outlast the competitors.