Expert360 closes $13 million Series B round led by AirTree Ventures

Online consulting marketplace Expert360 has announced the close of a $13 million Series B round led by AirTree Ventures, which will fund the development of new features and forward the startup’s international expansion.

Bringing the total raised by the startup to date to $21 million, the new funding round comes two years after the business closed its $4.1 million Series A round to expand on its online enterprise services.

Looking to better support its global customers, March last year saw Expert360 launch internationally with the opening of a New York office.

Sporting clients such as eBay, Mastercard, and Uber, the move served as a way for the business to build upon its existing US relationships, with Expert360 stating at the time that 30 percent of its then-7,000 consultants were based in the US.

According to the startup’s cofounder and CEO, Bridget Loudon, the Series B injection will help Expert360 accelerate its international services and growing portfolio of global clients.

“Thousands of companies including Commonwealth Bank, BHP, Woolworths and Qantas rely on our platform to build high-performing teams on demand, deliver superior project outcomes and reduce costs at the same time,” she said.

Expert360’s online marketplace connects freelancers to businesses for project-based consultant work, helping clients save the cost of hiring consultants and contractors from traditional bricks-and-mortar firms.

Each consultant on the platform undergoes a strict screening process, with each specialised in the area of either finance, technology, human resources, sales, marketing, or strategy.

The Series B funding will also go towards building out the platform’s functionality over the next year. Sitting in the developmental pipeline are features to allow businesses to easily work with others in their professional or personal network, manage their consulting workforce and simplify the team building process on the platform.

Expert360 stated that there has been a steady increase in the average value of projects available on the platform, with projects reaching a value of up to $700,000.

Emily Yue, cofounder and COO of Expert360, said the new features would help cater to this growth.

“Our vision from the start has been to bring people together seamlessly to do high quality work, by providing an intuitive, user-friendly platform,” she said.

Joining the startup’s board will be AirTree Ventures cofounder Daniel Petre, who praised Expert360 as able to “redefine the consulting industry”.

“Expert360 has hugely resonated with executives who have long sought a way to tap specialised skills for project work. Traditionally, this access has been costly, time-consuming or both,” he said.

Expert360 is the latest investment from AirTree Ventures since the launch of its $250 million fund last September. The fund’s most recent investment was in online lending platform Prospa, where the firm led a $25 million round.

Prospa’s platform targets small businesses, allowing them to quickly access unsecured loans of up to $250,000, with the round bringing the startup’s total raise to date to approximately $98 million.

Earlier this year also saw AirTree appoint Google executive Anil Sabharwal as a Venture Partner, as a move to bring “deep product and industry experience” to the firm’s team.

Image: Expert360 Team. Source: Supplied.