DoraHacks
About this raise
DoraHacks, recruiting service provider to hackers, is raising funds on Republic. The company has a valuation of $35 million and helps organizations to recruit talent and solve their technical problems. DoraHacks bridges the gap between the enterprises and developers through global hackathons and enterprise hubs. DoraHacks was founded by Jian Nan Zhang and Penny Wang in December 2018 and has raised more than $2 million since its founding. The current crowdfunding round of the company has a minimum goal of $100,000 and a maximum goal of $1,070,000. DoraHacks is growing fast with presence in eight countries and has generated about 3,000 projects with over 300,000 developers. The company has also collaborated with three major exchanges.
Investment Overview
Invested $231,075 :
Deal Terms
Company & Team
Company
- Year Founded
- 2018
- Industry
- Business Services, Software, & Applications
- Tech Sector
- Distribution Model
- B2B/B2C
- Margin
- High
- Capital Intensity
- Low
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Problem
DoraHacks has been selected as a “Deal To Watch” by KingsCrowd. This distinction is reserved for deals selected into the top 10-20% of our due diligence funnel. If you have questions regarding our deal diligence and selection methodology, please reach out to [email protected].
The global demand for developers continues to rise, creating a massive shortage of software talent. But this market is suffering from a specific pain point: The difficulty companies face when seeking top tech talent. Many enterprises rely on developers for their success and many are finding it difficult to find top talent.
This pain point does not only arise from the recruiters point of view, but from the talents’ side as well. These issues include finding job openings without advanced networking and showcasing true technical skills through a resume and verbal interview. Many talented developers get passed on every day due to generalized scouting and recruiting processes.
It could be argued that communication is mostly to blame for this disconnect between enterprises and developers. This absence of connection is due to the sheer number of recruiting platforms and inability to easily eliminate applicants who do not meet criteria or experience requirements. With the overload of applicants, recruiters do not have the ability to further analyze the qualified applicants and only get to judge their technical talents off of a paper resume.
This is detrimental to applicants, because technical skills are best showcased through portfolios of work, rather than a paper application.
Enterprises attempted to fix this with hack-a-thons, where developers could show off their work to employers, however; these are geographically limiting and do not open the door to possible employees. All these factors lead to recruiters experiencing difficulty vetting top tech talent, which is a detrimental problem within the massive booming tech recruiting industry.
Solution
DoraHacks is the recruiting bridge that enterprises and hackers demand to resolve the current issues present in the developer community.
DoraHacks is a platform that organizes numerous, accessible global hack-a-thons that show off cutting edge technology and provide talented hackers with a better opportunity to be noticed by possible future employers through a digital portfolio that displays projects and skills that may not be noticed through a typical resume. As well, hackers and teams that excel throughout these hack-a-thons and DoraHacks Global Hacker Ranking, will have an opportunity to receive investment and assistance from Hackers Fund, DoraHacks global hacker investment fund.
With a predicted market growth from 23.9 million professional developers today to 28.7 million in 2024, enterprises are going to heavily rely on DoraHacks to effectively hire hackers to provide them with the talent necessary to tackle challenges in all areas of business.
DoraHacks connects high-end developers with enterprise recruiters through global hackathons and its portfolio-based recruitment system that displays past projects as well as written resume experience. Through this recruitment system, recruiters can open a candidate’s profile and view a display of projects that the applicant has completed to evaluate his or her technical skills and experience in order to make the most educated decision on whether or not to hire the applicant. This also eliminates bias for both the employer and the applicant, as it showcases full capabilities that cannot be displayed adequately on paper.
Robert Half International is a main competitor for Dorahacks, as they have been named number 1 on Forbes’ list of best recruiting firms in 2019. Robert Half relies on its super advanced matching algorithm to pair its recruiters with possible talent.
However, DoraHacks has the potential to outperform Robert Half in the recruiting sector with the release of their portfolio based developer profiles that allow developers to display their work to best showcase their skills. Robert Half utilizes their services for many industries, and is valued at $6.42 Billion with a current share price of $54.62. DoraHacks has promising potential to be as successful in market capitalization with their crucial technology that will assist top tech talent with successfully getting started in their careers.
Growth Plan
DoraHacks is an emerging crucial platform with over $2 million in funding previously raised from prominent investors such as 8Decimal Capital and Bitmain Technologies. With the aid from this funding, DoraHacks was able to increase its revenue by over 800% between 2017 to 2018. With more funding, DoraHacks aims to bring in even more cash flow through the launch of its new global network developer community interface, HackHub.
HackHub will allow hackers to “create a profile, communicate and collaborate with hackers around the world, and engage in online hackathons or competitions.” HackHub will also recognize top talent and projects with badges and accolades that will be displayed on developers’ profiles. After creating an account, developers will have opportunities to enter into virtual hack-a-thons to display their work and talents to possible enterprise employers world-wide. HackHub is currently in a Beta stage, but with more funding, DoraHacks will be able to fully launch HackHub.
Once launching, DoraHacks will grow in size as more developers sign up then successfully get hired and recommend the platform to another aspiring developer who signs up. This domino-effect will spread all around the industry and lead to a huge user expansion.
With the addition of HackHub to the already dominant DoraHacks platform, DoraHacks plans to drastically increase its user traffic. By 2025, there will be a predicted 5-10 million developers utilizing HackHub with 5,000 enterprise partners. With the hike in service fees and sponsorships costs, DoraHacks can increase revenue and reinvest into the company to expand.
HackHub will cure a devastating market pain point by revolutionizing recruiting systems. After the launch of HackHub, DoraHacks will be viewed as an attractive acquisition target by larger industry platforms such as LinkedIn or Angel-List where specific developer talents are recruited. LinkedIn currently does not have a portfolio-based recruitment system outside of an employee’s profile that details their work and education history.
Management
Founder and CEO, Eric Zhang, is the mind behind DoraHacks. Zhang graduated from Oxford University with a master’s in Computer Science. Along with DoraHacks, Zhang is the Founder and CEO of TrueChain, a highly successful blockchain developer community. TrueChain is still in operation under Zhang’s lead and said to be the next generation in public blockchain technology for decentralized commercial applications. Additionally, Zhang has served as a researcher for CERN OpenLab where he was a champion of the CERN 2014 Webfest and assisted in organizing CERN 2013.
DorHacks is also led by Penny Wang, Co-Founder and Product Management, who does not have any industry or entrepreneurial experience but offers a strong developer background to DoraHacks. Wang earned her Masters of Economics and a Masters of Engineering in Financial Engineering from University of Leicester, which arms her with advanced tools in programming and financial development. Her educational background also puts her as one of the top developers world-wide, as seen in her own HackHub profile.
DoraHacks is backed by a team that has over 50 years of experience and countless international awards in both hacking and entrepreneurship. The rest of the team consists of: Head of Business Development, Steve Yue; Legal Director, Zhiyong Sun; and Investment Director and Founding Partner of 8Decimal Capital, Yubo Ruan.
Why We Like it
- Opportune Market Timing: DoraHacks in aiming to disrupt two massive industries. DoraHacks offers services in Global IT, a $3.7 trillion a year market, and Global Online Recruitment, a $27.3 billion a year market. Enterprises are starting to rely on developers/hackers more than ever. With the supply of developers expected to grow from 23.9 million professional developers today to 28.7 million in 2024, enterprise recruiters are going to need DoraHacks for an efficient and reliable way to find top-tier talent that best suits their company’s specific needs.
- Significant Traction: DoraHacks has been around since 2014 and has already established a large client network, increased revenue over 800% from 2017 to 2018, and is looking for funding to unleash new elements to make the platform even more functional and dominant. Dorahacks raised over $2 million from their last funding trip, and successfully allocated the money back into the company.
- Qualified Leaders and Investors: DoraHacks is run by some of the most experienced and bright minds in hacker technology. As well as Yubo Ruan, who has been recognized by Forbes for the financial work that he has accomplished within the technology/computer science sector. Dorahacks has a key combination of industry experience and venture capital backing that will build necessary trust in DoraHacks that will lead to its continued success.
- Growth Model with Release of HackHub: HackHub is a platform that allows developers to create profiles that showcase their talent to recruiters. HackHub is expected to raise user traffic from 100,000 hackers and 200 enterprises to 5-10 million hackers with 5,000 enterprise partners. With the raised service fees and hack-a-thon sponsorships, DoraHacks can easily generate high cash flow and become the top developer recruitment platform.
Rating
DoraHacks is a Deal To Watch. DoraHacks aims change the way that enterprises solve technical problems and recruit top-tier developer talent. Currently, there is a gap in the bridge connecting recruiters to the top talent in the industry, and this gap results in some of the best talent going unnoticed and companies not being able to meet technological demands. DoraHacks has the capability to bridge this gap efficiently and connect top-tier developers to recruiters seeking talent to assist developers in starting their careers.
DoraHacks is already recognized as a successful interface, but is looking for capital to take its platform to the next level and dominate the multi trillion-dollar Global IT and Global Online Recruitment markets. With their global network of hack-a-thons and industry revolutionizing portfolio based recruiting platform, DoraHacks has the leadership resources and differentiation needed to excel over its competitors.
DoraHacks has already seen an 800% revenue increase from 2017-2018 and will soon release HackHub, their innovative developer portfolio network. Hackhub brings huge potential to DoraHacks that can lead market dominance or a possible acquisition from a top-tier career recruiting platform such LinkedIn or AngelList.
Invest in DoraHacks here.
Analysis written by Chris Lustrino on October 2, 2019.
Company Funding & Growth
Funding history
Close Date | Platform | Valuation | Total Raised | Security Type | Status | Reg Type |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
04/15/2020 | Republic | $35,000,000 | $231,075 | SAFE | Funded | RegCF |