Colombia-based startup Torre raises a $10 million Seed round from SpaceX, Facebook, Uber former execs

The platform automates the recruitment and the search for flexible and full-time work

Alexander Torrenegra, Torre's founder. Photo: Torre/Courtesy

01.Apr.2021 10:02 BRT
UPDATED 05.Apr.2021 16:47 BRT

Torre has more than 1 million users in more than 180 countries;
Torrenegra’s goal is to build a professional network that humanizes and automates the recruitment for flexible, full-time job search.

Colombian startup Torre secured a $10 million Seed round led by former executives from Apple, Facebook, Uber and SpaceX.

During the first months of the pandemic, the search for remote work in Google increased more than 309% compared to 2019. At a time when working from home became vital, professionals in Latin America started to look for jobs in companies abroad. It is a win-win for both companies and employees, since the currencies of the region are devalued about the dollar. The company spends less on the worker, who increases his income on the domestic market.

That’s when Torre got in, back in 2019. Alexander Torrenegra, Torre’s founder and CEO, wanted to bridge the gap between firms and professionals in Latin America to have access to cross-borders job opportunities.

Alexander Torrenegra, Torre’s founder and CEO. Photo: LinkedIn/Alexander Torrenegra

Torre presents itself as a platform that facilitates the application, recruitment, and selection process for remote work. Currently, it has more than 1 million users in more than 180 countries around the world, creating the match between tech talent in Latin America and companies with tech gap worldwide. Yet, the new round will allow the startup to move further: expanding to new countries and developing the platform.

Torrenegra’s goal is to build a professional network that humanizes and automates the recruitment for flexible, full-time job search. “Today it is more difficult to migrate than before, but remote work is growing by leaps and bounds, solving all these migration problems. Then, I realized that this causes another big problem: most people do not have a good digitized work profile that allows them to be connected and be found by companies that are offering remote jobs,” says Torrenegra, in a press statement.

Torre is backed by great names in tech

Executives and former executives of the world’s big techs took part in this seed round, which stands out not only for the amount of investment but for the participation of many individual investors, such as Kass and Mike Lazerow, co-founders of Buddy Media and Velvet Sea Ventures, first investors in SpaceX, Facebook, and Pinterest; Diego Piacentini, a former executive of Amazon and Apple; Mike Shoemaker, a former Uber executive; Haiping Zhao, an engineer in the early days of Facebook, Alibaba, and TikTok; Rodrigo Schmidt, engineering director at Instagram, Fernando Fabre, former president of Endeavor, and Emma Studio, the studio that Torrenegra founded Torre.

Raising capital requires total focus, so you have to be prepared. Most of the meetings will be with people who have created real and successful companies and products in the past, so you have to enter each meeting with the goal not only of raising capital but also of learning something new.
Alexander Torrenegra, founder and CEO at torre

They were joined by other investors from different countries, such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Greece, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay.

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Torrenegra is focused on making Torre the largest network of professionals in the world.”Raising capital from so many different investors took a lot of focus, a multi-person team, and a lot of conversation. We had hundreds of calls with successful entrepreneurs who have created impressive businesses and technology. We learned new and valuable knowledge in every conversation. We are proud to have such incredible investors. Many have created globally recognized technology products, so it is an honor that they believe in us and what we are building.”