Online consulting marketplace, Expert360, has closed a $13m Series B investment round, bringing its total funding to $21 million.
The round was led AirTree Ventures, with Daniel Petre – the VC fund’s co-founder – joining the board of Expert360. Existing investors include Frontier Ventures and former Macquarie Chief Allan Moss.
Founded in July 2013, Expert360 is a digital platform that enables businesses to tap into a network of independent consultants across 90 countries. According to CEO and co-founder, Bridget Loudon, the Series B capital raise will enable Expert360 to ‘carve out a bigger slice’ of the $600B global consulting industry by introducing new features and functionality for both clients and consultants, while continuing to expand internationally.
“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,” Loudon said.
“Expert360 has over 15,000 vetted professionals covering hundreds of capability areas. Clients are telling us that many of the best consultants are no longer sitting in firms, or looking to take full-time jobs. They’re on Expert360.”
Petre, formerly the Managing Director for Microsoft in Australia, and has established three technology investment companies, including AirTree Ventures, said Expert360 has “hugely resonated with executives who have long sought a way to tap specialised skills for project work”. He continued, “Traditionally, this access has been costly, time-consuming or both. This company is going to redefine the consulting industry.”
The average value of projects available on the platform has increased steadily, with projects now valued at up to $700,000. Over the next year, Expert360 plans to bring additional functionality to the platform that allows businesses to easily work with individuals in their personal or professional network, manage their contingent and consulting workforce and streamline the team building process.
“Our vision from the start has been to bring people together seamlessly to do high quality work, by providing an intuitive, user-friendly platform.” Said Expert360’s COO and co-founder Emily Yue.
AirTree has made more than a dozen investments over the last year including Canva, Prospa, 90Seconds and Paxata. They have recently made a series of high profile hires of investors and operators with world-class international experience including James Cameron (previously at Accel) and Google’s VP of Product, Anil Sabharwal.
“Daniel, James and the broader AirTree Ventures team are the perfect partner for us for the next stage of our growth,” said Loudon.
