Why we Invested: Torre

The staffing and recruiting market felt ripe for disruption even before COVID-19. Today, our world of work is almost unrecognizable. Historical unemployment rates, a sudden normalization of remote work, and the explosion of the “liquid” job market have rendered existing professional networks outdated.

Enter Torre, the Silicon Valley-based AI-powered staffing and recruiting platform designed for the “future of work” (which is arriving faster than we’d ever imagined). Our team at TBD Angels connected with Torre this spring and immediately resonated with their vision to address the incomplete nature of resume-based hiring. Powered by intelligent programmatic recruiting, Torre helps candidates to build a “professional genome” based upon hard and soft skills, interests, aspirations, learning preferences, and verifiable peer recommendations. A bit more sophisticated than a Microsoft Office endorsement from seven years ago and more believable than a candidate’s self-reported qualitative descriptors.

Convinced of the product, our team at TBD Angels dove into due diligence with Torre’s leadership and existing investors to talk strategy, vision, and traction. With serial entrepreneur and Shark Tank Colombia investor Alexander Torrenegra at the helm, Torre has gained substantial momentum since its 2017 inception. The platform has amassed nearly 500,000 active users with compounding monthly growth and already boasts the world’s largest database for remote engineering jobs for English-speaking candidates.

Of course, like any platform play, Torre’s success hinges on its ability to grow a critical mass of users. In spite of dominant incumbents like LinkedIn and Indeed, 2 billion working age adults with internet access still don’t have a digital professional profile. The market opportunity is crystal clear, and Torre has arrived at a well-timed, well-built, and well-led solution.

Thirteen members of the TBD Angels syndicate invested into Torre’s oversubscribed $5 million seed round. With entrepreneurial backgrounds in advertising, technology, finance, and healthcare, we’re not strangers to the world of big data and artificial intelligence. Torre is poised to take the staffing and recruiting world by storm, and we’re thrilled to roll up our sleeves and support their strategic growth.

Evan Deutsch is a member of TBD Angels