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Online Work Platform oDesk Raises $15M From T. Rowe Price, Benchmark

Leena Rao

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Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Thursday, March 22nd, 2012
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Online work platform oDesk has raised $15 million in Series D funding from T. Rowe Price Associates with participation from Benchmark Capital, Globespan Capital Partners and Sigma Partners. This brings oDesk’s total funding to $45 million.

oDesk offers a “marketplace for talent” that makes it easy for companies to hire workers online for work that can be done remotely. This work ranges from writing to marketing to data analysis and more. oDesk contractors are currently earning more than $300 million on an annual basis, and worked a record 2.1 million hours last October through the oDesk website. oDesk believes the market will grow to $1 billion by this year.

Companies simply post a job for free, and contractors can apply. oDesk will provide prior work histories and feedback ratings for contractors who have used the site previously. oDesk makes money by taking a 10 percent cut of every work transaction made through the site.

The company is also announcing that Gregory Stanger, the former CFO of both Expedia and Chegg, has joined oDesk as Chief Financial Officer. Stanger has also served on the Board of Directors at Expedia, Netflix, Drugstore.com and Kayak, and was previously a Venture Partner at Technology Crossover Ventures.

Last Fall, oDesk added former senior vice president of engineering at Sun Microsystems Jeff Jackson as vice president of engineering Jaleh Bisharat, a former marketing exec at OpenTable and Amazon, as vice president of marketing. And in December, former OpenTable CEO and CitySearch founder Thomas Layton joined the company as Executive Chairman.

Check out our TCTV piece with CEO Gary Swart addressing the news.


Crunchbase

Company: oDesk
Website: odesk.com
Launch Date: 2005
Funding: $44M

oDesk is an online workplace that enables businesses to find, hire, manage, and pay talented independent professionals via the Internet. Businesses can hire these online contract workers for any type of work that can be done in front of a computer — from every tech skill imaginable to project management, customer support, marketing, design and even legal services. Access to a large, global pool of skilled contractors is especially powerful for startups and small businesses with limited resources, businesses...

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