In a tight labor market, so-called vertical labor marketplaces that zoom in on one industry, like nursing or hospitality, are drawing funding. Trusted Health, a healthcare staffing platform, raised $149 million in funding in November, for example. Seasoned, a hiring platform for restaurant workers, closed on nearly $19 million at roughly the same time.
Investors are similarly betting there is plenty of upside in a hiring platform focused entirely on the fast-growing cannabis industry, in which an estimated 320,000 people were already working as of last fall, a 32% increase from the year earlier.
Indeed, an investor syndicate led by Level One Fund just plugged $19 million in Series B funding into Vangst, a six-year-old, Denver-based outfit that pairs both short-term workers and full-time employees with job openings at cannabis companies around the U.S. It’s no surprise, given the traction the outfit is seeing, along with the variety of revenue streams it has built.
According to founder and CEO Karson Humiston — who launched the company while an undergraduate student at St. Lawrence University — Vangst currently fea …
