The start-up financier Digital+Partners has joined an employment agency that is aimed at specialists and commercial personnel and wants to become their leading European platform: Hey Jobs has just received 43 million euros in a financing round led by Digital+Partners and will open at valued at several hundred million euros on this basis.

That's what Hey-Jobs CEO Marius Luther and Patrick Beitel, partner at Digital+Partners said in an interview with the FAZ.

Portals such as Xing in Germany and internationally Linkedin are primarily aimed at academics and office workers.

Hey Jobs is aimed at the large group of other employees, for example in production, trades and health care.

"There is no Linkedin and Xing for 80 percent of the labor market," said Luther.

"Hey Jobs fills this gap."

Customers from Deutsche Bahn to ASB

The company, which was founded in 2016, has 300 employees and claims to serve more than 2,500 customers, including Deutsche Bahn, McDonald's, Rewe and the Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund.

The company has placed 100,000 jobs so far, five times as many people belong to the pool of candidates.

According to Beitel, sales are in the "mid double-digit million range".

Hey Jobs should still be profitable with the current financing round, it is the third cash injection - after seed capital in 2016 and a financing round in 2019.

As a new investor, Digital+Partners gave 20 million euros in the third round.

Other financiers contribute the rest, including 8 million euros, which they use to buy out early investors.

Digital+Partners specializes in investments in technology companies and defines itself as a financier at the interface between venture capitalists and private equity.

"Become Europe's leading platform"

Hey Jobs operates its business model in two stages.

On the one hand, the Berlin company is commissioned by employers to look for specialists such as nurses, train drivers and craftsmen.

It then crawls platforms like Instagram and Facebook;

Candidates should be able to apply without much trouble.

"70 percent of applications are made on smartphones," said Luther.

On the other hand, a career platform similar to Xing and Linkedin will be created.

"I think it can get a lot bigger than Xing," Luther said.

In any case, because of the internationality, the focus is more on Linkedin.

After Berlin and Cologne, Vienna is the first foreign location to be set up.

"The goal is to become the leading career platform in Europe for skilled workers and industrial staff," said Luther.