A startup from Estonia to help hire Uzbeks for construction in EU

An Estonian startup Werk, which focuses on the selection of construction specialists, has raised $1.3 million in investments for pre-seed, Spot reports with reference to Arctic Startup.

The main investor of the startup with an office in Tallinn was the local venture capital fund Change Ventures. According to the site, this is one of the largest early-stage investments in an HR startup.

The Werk team has created a platform for the recruitment of workers from migrants by construction companies. The platform takes care of the recruitment and relocation of personnel.

“We help skilled workers connect with contractors in a legal, transparent and secure way,” Martin Kalames, founder of the platform, said.

According to him, two problems are solved through the platform – the use of migrants by unreliable and illegal contractors, as well as the lack of personnel and the difficulty of attracting them.

The shortage of builders – 30% of which in the EU are foreigners – has escalated into a pandemic. The fighting in Ukraine exacerbated the situation, since Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians made up a significant part of the construction workers.

To solve the problem, Werk plans to attract migrants from new countries – in particular, from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Georgia.

Werk was launched in 2020. In less than two years, more than 2,000 verified builders working in companies from Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have replenished the project base.

Now work is underway on a software package for the relocation of workers abroad. As planned, it automates the obtaining of visas and residence permits, the purchase of air tickets, the opening of bank accounts and the sending of transfers to their relatives at home.

In addition, the creators are testing the social functionality of the platform. Thanks to it, employees will be able to communicate with each other, exchange professional advice and work experience in different countries.