While more than 1.2 million people in the world are suffocating under the cobwebs of coronavirus, we can’t even imagine how many of them have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. In the US, March 2020 registered the biggest loss, and the worst is yet to come. Paced by a net loss of 459,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector, it was the biggest monthly drop since the depths of the Great Recession in 2008-9.
Do follow our special coverage on coronavirus over here.
Besides the layoffs, several companies have frozen hiring as well. But don’t worry, we are not going to talk about all the negativity here. Instead, we spoke to some startups which are hiring right now.
Adriaan Mol, founder of Mollie, the city’s leading fintech startup which is still hiring, says, “Last week we onboarded 15 new Mollies, 100% digitally, through a series of video calls and online training sessions. Every new joiner gets a buddy who shares tips and tricks and who is always ready to answer questions and provide support. Germany and France are key growth markets for Mollie. Last year we opened an office in Paris and we are now in the process of opening an office in Munich. We are continuing to recruit at full speed even while several of our competitors have slowed down or stopped hiring completely. Looking at the recent increase in our transaction volumes we are convinced that we now have an opportunity to strengthen our business for the long term.
Let’s take a look at those high-spirited startups from Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands who are hiring right now. Tell all your friends looking for jobs.
Polarsteps
Founder/s: Job Harmsen, Koen Droste, Maximiliano Neustadt, Niek Bokkers
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €4.4 million
The travel tracking app startup from Amsterdam informed Silicon Canals that they’re still hiring and in fact, will open up several new positions in this week and next.
Polarsteps automatically tracks your route and the places you have visited while you are travelling. Interestingly, the GPS works independently of mobile reception, where the app syncs its data whenever the user crosses a pocket of cell reception or when you log in to the Wi-Fi at the cafe or hotel. The company wants to create the best travel tracker in the world by leaving you with vivid and detailed reports of adventures. Apply for a job at Polarsteps by clicking on this link.
Backbase
Founder/s: Jouk Pleiter, Gerbert Kaandorp
Founded year: 2003
Funding: NA
The digital banking startup from the bicycle capital — Backbase — is also hiring right now. You can check open positions over here.
The startup was launched as a software toolkit for developing user interfaces to help companies that create applications and entered the fintech sector in 2012. The Dutch startup is a leading digital engagement banking software across the world. And, is used by clients including Citibank, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and others.
Mollie
Founder/s: Adriaan Mol
Founded year: 2004
Total funding: €25 million
Another leading fintech name in Amsterdam, Mollie, the online payment service startup has been touting aggressively on their LinkedIn page for a couple of weeks now, about all their current hirings. You can find all their open positions over here.
Mollie’s cloud-based platform serves more than 80,000 businesses in Europe. The online payment platform aims to simplify payments by offering clever products combined with great design. The Dutch startup intends to accelerate growth and expand both its commercial team and operations, and scale its product and engineering teams.
In 2018, the company’s founder, Adriaan Mol, who’s also the founder of another leading Dutch startup MessageBird was awarded with Netherland’s famous LOEY Awards for being the best online entrepreneur of the year.
MessageBird
Founder/s: Adriaan Mol, Robert Vis
Founded year: 2011
Funding: €54.7 million
When Mollie is hiring, of course MessageBird has to. Both startups are products of the same founder and both the companies are equally successful.
Founded 7 years after Mollie was launched, this one is a cloud communications service provider that offers voice, SMS, and chat solutions letting developers and enterprises to communicate with their customers across the world virtually. If you’re interested in working at MessageBird you can check out the positions over here.
The Dutch startup serves over 15,000 global customers and solves their communication challenges.
Picnic
Founder/s: Frederik Nieuwenhuys, Joris Beckers, Michiel Muller, Bas Verheijen
Founded year: 2015
Funding: €350 million
The famous Dutch online supermarket startup of Amsterdam, Albert Heijn’s arch-rival — Picnic is also hiring. Check out positions over here. The tech unicorn is known for delivering groceries at the lowest price to customers’ doorsteps without any delivery costs.
It is one of the most sustainable supermarkets in the country as it deploys 100% electrical delivery vans and does not waste food. As everything comes directly from the farmer or baker to users’ doorsteps, there is no food waste with this online supermarket. Picnic has a vast network across the Netherlands and services hundreds of thousands of customers. In 2019, Picnic was named the fastest-growing company in the Netherlands.
Adyen
Founder/s: Pieter van der Does, Arnout Schuijff
Founded year: 2006
Funding: €293 million
The flag-bearer of the Netherlands, Adyen, a fintech unicorn operating with the intention to simplify and accelerate global payments is also hiring. All open positions can be looked at over here.
Adyen helps businesses grow and meet during the constantly changing requirements of global businesses with its payment platform that is built on contemporary infrastructure, which is connected to local payment methods and offers a unified experience to buyers and provides merchants with shopper data insights. The Adyen payments platform enables merchants to accept payments in a single system so that their revenue grows via online, on mobile devices, and at the point of sale.
Ohpen
Founder/s: Chris Zadeh, Bas Wouwenaar, Erik Drijkoningen & Ilco van Bolhuis
Founded year: 2009
Funding: €40 million
Ohpen is another leading Dutch fintech company that liberates banks from their legacy processes and systems and is also hiring during the pandemic. Its effective, cloud-based core banking engine is completely reliable, adaptable, and compliant. Ohpen operates with the mission to develop the best core banking engine in the world. The Dutch fintech startup intends to offer its services to larger banks and enter into the pension market as well. Back in 2019, NPM Capital acquired a 35% stake in Ohpen. For those interested, can apply over here.
Catawiki
Founder/s: Marco Jansen, René Schoenmakers
Founded year: 2008
Funding: €85 million
Another stellar startup from the canal city, Catawiki has also been confirmed to be hiring. A popular name among the Dutch, Catawiki is a curated marketplace for special objects in Europe. Every week, the platform puts on offer 50,000 items from around the globe, in more than 80 categories such as collectables, art, design, jewellery, watches, classic cars and more. You can check out the open positions over here.
The company also won the Deloitte Fast500 as the fastest growing company in Europe back in 2015. Ravi Vora, CEO, Catawiki says, “Catawiki has been growing at 25-30% per annum on a reasonably large GMV of €350 million. We have also been profitable since the last six months. This trend has given us the confidence to double down on some of the drivers to further accelerate growth in the business.”
He further adds, “The corona crisis represents a large challenge and will definitely lead to some slow down in the short term. However the overall trajectory of our business should remain unchanged. After the 10% decline we saw in the second half of March, we already see some of the negative effects being offset due to an accelerated shift from offline to online. In this period, we have tried to give confidence to our buyers and sellers to continue using our expert curated platform in a seamless manner, with the peace of mind that their money is safe till goods are shipped / received to each party’s satisfaction.
“We hope the current lockdown measures will be effective and the courier services can continue to run like they are doing today. This will be key to minimising impact in the short term. Hence we are continuing to hire for about 20 open positions, (on top of the 500 people we already have in the company) to continue strengthening Catawiki,” he concludes.
Are you also an Amsterdam-born startup and hiring during the pandemic and missing in the list? Let us know, we will put your message across.
This article is produced in collaboration with StartupAmsterdam. Read more about our partnering opportunities.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more European technology news. Oh, and be sure to keep and eye on Silicon Canals’ Jobs, for loads of exciting opportunities.
01
From port to startup fort: How Lars Crama is ‘Making it Happen’ in Rotterdam