Omnipresent, a UK startup born out of COVID-19 snaps €1.7M to simplify remote working

Previously, a lot of traditional companies do not allow work from home, whereas the new-age startup offered it as a perk. Right now, the remote working phenomenon has become the new normal for many during the coronavirus pandemic. So remote work is here to stay. Many challenges come with managing a remote team. 

While some may have all the experience in the world working the office environment with a huge team, not everything will translate into a remote working world. 

Based out of London, Omnipresent addresses this challenge by building a tech-enabled platform that handles all of the complexity of international employment for clients and their remote workers with a simplified employment solution. 

Planning to cover 80 markets with new funding

Recently, the company raised $2 million (approx €1.7 million) funding in a seed round led by Playfair Capital and Episode 1. Other investors including Entrepreneur First, Truesight Ventures, Charlie Songhurst, Andrew Goodman, Akash Gupta, Srin Madipalli, and Ian Hogarth also participated. It’s worth mentioning that the company raised funding within 6 weeks of its inception remotely. 

“Remote work is one of the great equalisers of our time,” said Matt Wilson, the company’s co-founder, and Co-CEO. “It allows people to secure employment opportunities from the best companies around the world, no matter where they were born or where they live. Yet, at a time when remote work is exploding, most companies are finding it operationally too complex, as well as prohibitively costly, to employ workers internationally. At Omnipresent, we’re centralising this complexity for our clients and offering them, and their remote workers, a simplified, cost-effective and legally compliant employment experience.”

The company intends to use the funding to extend Omnipresent’s coverage to 80 markets by the end of 2020, enabling the company to meet the explosion in demand from companies wanting to employ their inter-jurisdictional remote workers in a legally compliant and cost-effective manner.

Joe Thornton, who leads the deal on behalf of Playfair Capital, said: “Change always has a transaction cost. For business executives, the prospect of shifting from a collocated office to a fully distributed workforce was previously viewed as too risky a change, even though the evidence has long supported the superiority of remote workforces. And then suddenly, earlier this year, the decision was taken for every business executive as the entire knowledge economy globally was forced into remote working due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.” 

How Omnipresent helps clients? 

While the demand from employees for remote positions has exploded, it also brings significant challenges with it. Some of the legal risks include Permanent establishment, transfer pricing, employers’ liability, and others. 

With an automation-focused tech platform and network of legal entities across the globe, Omnipresent is centralising the complexity and cost of global employment by offering what Wilson refers to as “the premium global employment-as-a-service offering on the market.” 

“The most ambitious companies in the world need no longer be constrained by the available local talent,” said Dr. Guenther Eisinger, Omnipresent’s co-founder, and Co-CEO. “Covid-19 has shed light on the opportunity for a new way of working and businesses have to adapt to it or face extinction.”

Why was Omnipresent born?

Founded by Matthew Wilson and Guenther Eisinger, Omnipresent was established to solve challenges faced by businesses thousands of miles apart and manage a remote team. 

“As entrepreneurs, we believed that our priority should be towards growing our business and accessing the best global talent, not focusing on the admin required to make that possible.”

Born out of COVID, Omnipresent built a team remotely, serving remote clients who want to employ remote staff. “We take care of the boring and often complex stuff, so you and your workers can focus on executing your business plans.”

Carina Namih, General Partner at Episode 1 who co-led the deal, said: “I’ve experienced these challenges firsthand as the CEO of a business with my team spread across several jurisdictions. Now as a board member of several rapidly growing businesses, I see management grappling with these challenges time and again. Omnipresent’s solution is sorely needed.”

Main image credits: Omnipresent