Gun.io takes on $5.2M investment from Ballast Point Ventures to create the world’s best hiring experience for software developers
August 9, 2022 — Gun.io is a Nashville-born global talent agency that has spent the last decade getting the world’s best software developers hired on remote, long-term engagements with forward-thinking organizations. The company uses proprietary software and a unique, personal approach to massively outperform industry-standard hiring practices. In today’s competitive technology hiring market, organizations and software professionals work through Gun.io to get to work faster and reduce complexity and risk.
This month, Gun.io entered into an investment partnership with Ballast Point Ventures and raised $5.2M to accelerate its growth, the first such investment the company has taken on in its decade of profitable operation.
The company will direct the investment into improving the hiring experience for its 20,000+ users:
- Vetted software professionals will be able to land their first paid engagement on the platform faster, while Gun.io does the hard work behind the scenes.
- Hirers will be equipped with data-backed recommendations for competitive salaries that will help them land (and retain) world-class talent.
- Professionals will be equipped with data-backed recommendations for market rates based on their skill and experience level; no more guessing how much to charge.
- Professionals will see a dramatic increase in full-time and freelance jobs on the platform, including opportunities to broaden their skill sets.
- For developers who want to increase their earning potential, Gun.io will offer mentorship across both professional and software skills.
Over the last ten years, Gun.io has paid out over $10 million to developers across the world, and has helped organizations access the kind of software talent that powers Silicon Valley darlings. Organizations like The Motley Fool and Custom Ink have expanded their development capacity with Gun.io engineers, and those same engineers have helped founders build and launch category-defining products.
“When we first met with Ballast Point Ventures, we were immediately struck by how aligned we were not just on the opportunity in front of Gun.io, but on our philosophy of how to build an enduring company through controlled and measured growth,” said Teja Yenamandra, co-founder and CEO of Gun.io. “Robert, Laura, and the team at Ballast Point Ventures not only have a great deal of practical marketplace experience, but they are disciplined investors that conduct themselves with the highest level of integrity. That is precisely the culture we’re building at our company, and that focus on enduring relationships, integrity, and competence is precisely why our companies and developers choose to work with us instead of the myriad options they have. We look forward to building Gun.io together and continuing to transform the tech recruiting and staffing landscape.”
“Having gotten to know Teja over the last several years, we have been very impressed with the company that he has built in Nashville. We know the problem that he and Gun.io are tackling is a large and growing one, as we have heard firsthand from our portfolio of software companies about the challenge of finding high-quality software developers. This dynamic, coupled with the acceleration of ‘work-from-anywhere’, and gig worker trends, got us excited about partnering with Gun.io. Teja and his team have achieved significant growth with minimal outside capital investment, showing focus and determination that impressed us from the beginning,” said Ballast Point Ventures Partner Robert Faber, who will join the Gun.io Board of Directors. Laura Stein, who joined Ballast Point Ventures as a Vice President this past Spring, will join the Company as a Board Observer. Stein commented, “Gun.io is a great fit for us, given its headquarters in the Southeastern United States and its capital efficiency to-date. We are excited to partner with Teja, Tyler, and the rest of the team at Gun.io.”
Ballast Point Ventures, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, is a later-stage venture capital and growth equity fund founded in 2002 to provide expansion capital for rapidly growing, privately owned companies, with a particular emphasis on companies located in Florida, the Southeast and Texas. The BPV partners have more than 85 years of combined experience investing in and building high-growth companies in several industries, including software, technology-enabled business services, and healthcare. Ballast Point Ventures has raised $550 million across four Funds and seeks to make initial equity investments ranging in size from $5 million to $15 million. For additional information, visit www.ballastpointventures.com.
Gun.io’s team is fully remote and maintains an office in Nashville, TN. You can reach them at [email protected].
Interested in working with Gun.io? We specialize in helping engineers hire (and get hired by) the best minds in software development.