Freelance Work Management Startup Stoke Raises $4.5 Million

Tel Aviv-based freelance work management startup Stoke Talent Ltd. has raised a $4.5 seed round, the company announced Wednesday. The round was led by Tel Aviv-based venture capital firm TLV Partners. Former Google executive Bogomil Balkansky, New York-based Flatiron Health Inc. founder Zach Weinberg, and San Mateo, California-based Clarizen Inc. CEO Boaz Chalamish also participated.

Founded earlier this year, Stoke develops an online service that enables companies to find, hire and manage freelancers on a large scale. The company’s technology, currently still in beta testing, will provide organizations with a management platform for their existing external workforce, as well as integrate with popular online freelance marketplaces such as Fiverr Int. Ltd.

Stoke’s online service is not a marketplace, but rather adds a management layer to existing marketplaces, Shahar Erez, Stoke CEO and co-founder, said in a Tuesday interview with Calcalist. Full-time hiring has a very clear procedure, while freelance recruitment is not as straightforward. A human resource manager would have to find the employee on their own and has no idea what to sign the employee for and how their daily management works, such as how and when the freelancer is paid, Erez said. This is where Stoke comes in, he said.