Fiverr Acquires Freelance Management Platform Stoke Talent

[mjensen415]

Acquisition expected to allow Fiverr to provide a holistic solution that will seamlessly integrate into business workflows in order to manage both online and offline freelance talent

New York, NY - November 2, 2021 - Fiverr International Ltd. (NYSE: FVRR), the company that is changing how the world works together, announced today the acquisition of Stoke Talent, an intuitive all-in-one solution to help companies manage their work with freelance talent, for $95 million. This includes tools to onboard, pay, track budgets and more. With Stoke's product suite, Fiverr is looking to add more value to larger businesses and integrate with existing corporate workflows.

"The Stoke acquisition made complete sense on multiple levels," said Micha Kaufman, Founder and CEO of Fiverr. "It supports Fiverr's move upmarket and allows us to engage with much larger customers; It allows Fiverr to offer software solutions to businesses that already have freelancers that they work with and now can manage them easily; It allows Fiverr to pair its marketplace talent with large customers that need access to freelancers they still do not yet have a relationship with; It gives Fiverr access to the offline freelancing market that is still orders of magnitude larger than online freelancing; and finally, Stoke is a fast-growing best-in-class product with an incredible team behind it that we are delighted to add to our family."

Stoke Talent was founded by Shahar Erez and Hilik Paz with the goal of making it easier for businesses to leverage freelance talent. Stoke gives companies the ability to build their own talent directory for both online and offline talent, track budget and milestone completions and provides solutions for tax, legal and workforce classification compliance. Joining Fiverr significantly expands the company's capabilities, from freelancer management to talent sourcing and matching while accelerating and expanding its go-to-market strategy and pace. The company has almost 30 full-time employees and is headquartered in Tel Aviv.

"We share Fiverr's vision that freelance talent can help propel companies to new heights, both from a productivity and agility standpoint," said Shahar Erez, Co-founder and CEO at Stoke Talent. "This is an amazing opportunity to continue doing what we love to do, but on a much larger and broader scale. Together with Fiverr, we have the ability to build an ecosystem where businesses can implement a multi-channel freelancer strategy, and provide tools for them to efficiently manage not only freelancer engagement on Fiverr's marketplace, but those off Fiverr's marketplace as well. There are meaningful synergies between the two companies and we're excited for what the future holds."

Stoke Talent's current offerings will remain independently operated. At the same time, the two companies will work together to unlock the synergy between Fiverr's suite of B2B products, including Fiverr Business, and Stoke's freelance management platform.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/02/fiverr-acquires-stoke-talent-for-95m-adding-freelance-management-tools-for-employers-to-its-platform/

[topaz_muse]

This is exciting news, but some clarity is needed on how this will work. While the two will function independently, will there be an option to connect Fiverr accounts to the new platform? Will there be any rule changes in regards to working with clients that are found outside of Fiverr through the Stoke platform?

[melanielm]

Great option for companies that use freelancers. If I'm correct, it doesn't really have anything to do with us here. Maybe I should buy some Fiverr stock to get in on the benefits. 🙂

I wonder what will happen to Fiverr (this platform) with "Fiverr's move upmarket" eventually. 

[surajkartha]

Safe to say that Fiverr's pretty stoked about the acquisition 😄

[zackreynolds]

Sage business advice is: innovate or die.

Fiverr definitely needs to tap into the business market with the current state of the labor market. Anyway Fiverr can make hiring freelancers faster, easier, and more streamlined for business clients, the better Fiverr (and therefore us) will be positioned to take advantage of the next revolution in how things will get done.

[melissaharlowvo]

Anytime an acquisition occurs, you know that is great news! As I said before, the Pivot Power of Fiverr will help all of us and help Fiverr dominate in big business. Fiverr has the ability to tap into people power and that’s what drives them forward. Congratulations Fiverr.

The Future is with Fiverr.