Vangst operates a vertical labor marketplace that connects both short-term W-2 gig workers and full-time employees with cannabis employers across the U.S. The platform sources roughly 500 gigs per week and fills those roles in about 48 hours on average, and lists nearly 2,000 full-time positions representing $85 million in gross salaries. Revenue streams include hourly markups (the company charges about 50% more than it pays part-time workers), placement fees that take a percentage of a candidate’s first-year salary, monthly and yearly employer subscriptions, and a new paid content business with training modules. The company treats gig workers as W-2 employees and runs its own payroll. Vangst has 56 employees and weathered COVID-era headcount cuts in 2020, which prompted a push into full-time placements. Management plans to use new funding to expand marketing and to explore international markets, including exploratory work in Barcelona with an investor partner. Vangst operates a recruiting marketplace for the cannabis industry, offering both direct-hire placement and on-demand gig staffing with candidate hour-tracking and mutual ratings. The platform aggregates candidates for roles across cultivation, extraction, retail and ancillary businesses and charges a percentage of first-year salary for direct hires and a markup on gig pay (with buyout fees for long-term placements). Vangst began as a boutique staffing agency and expanded into a technology platform to notify candidates of short-term gigs and manage seasonal labor. The company says direct-hire revenue more than doubled last year and that business remains profitable, though it raised capital to hire engineering, customer-success and legal teams to scale. Operational metrics in the article note a ~70-person team, about 200,000 job candidates on the platform and up to 1,000 resumes on some days. Vangst markets via college outreach, career fairs and trade shows and is building local teams as it launches new cities. Vangst operates a jobs marketplace connecting employers and job seekers across the cannabis industry. The company matches candidates ranging from entry-level to executive roles and has leveraged its network to connect over 300 cannabis and ancillary businesses with over 5,000 employees to date. It plans to use the $2.5M funding to continue growing its jobs marketplace and to improve its recruiting technology, internal infrastructure and future hiring missions. Launched by Karson Humiston in 2014, Vangst also founded and operates The Cannabis Career Summit, a comprehensive cannabis career fair. The article does not disclose additional financial terms or prior rounds.

Total raised

$32M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Jan 2022