Job Today inks $35M media-for-equity deal with European broadcasters

Job finder app Job Today has inked a new media-for-equity deal worth $35 million.

The Luxembourg-based startup is one of several European players seeking to switch CV-style recruitment for blue-collar jobs to a faster, app-based interface that returns results based on location and lets potential recruits and employers connect over mobile chat. Rivals include CornerJobJobandtalentinploi and Gig, to name a few. Others also have pursued the media for equity route to gaining faster exposure for apps that can only function well with a critical mass of users.

The Accel-backed startup closed a $20 million Series B round last November, which also included three media investors: Astremedia (Spain), Channel 4 (UK) and German Media Pool VC — two of whom (Astremedia and German Media Pool) are part of the new media for equity deal, along with a second German broadcaster, RTL Germany (which owns a strategic minority shareholding in Astremedia).

“The media players are giving us broadcasting inventory with a gross value of $35 million — in exchange for which they get equity stake in the company,” confirms co-founder Polina Montano.

“There are different channels, it doesn’t have to be TV only, it can be other channels such as outdoor advertising, billboards, radio — but mostly it is TV,” she adds.

While Job Today has not yet launched in Germany, Montano says it will do so this year.

At this point the app has more than 2.5 million registered users in the two markets where it currently operates, the U.K. and Spain; along with more than 200,000 registered employers (up from around 2 million users and 150,000 businesses in November).

“We’re processing about one million job applications per week,” she adds.

Job Today notes that RTL Group reaches audiences around the world and owns stakes in TV channels and radio stations in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Croatia and Southeast Asia.

So having a strategic link to the broadcaster’s footprint sets up Job Today to step into additional markets in the future — although for the next six months, at least, Polina says the focus is on “solidifying leadership” in its two European markets, and also preparing to launch in a third: Germany.