Wishket, a startup specialist in IT outsourcing has received a US$1 million (KRW 1.2b) investment from Smilegate Investment and Mega Investment.
Wishket is an online outsourcing platform linking IT projects with IT specialists that can carry out the work. When a company registers a project on Wishket, prospective talent are able to anonymously tender their proposals. The various proposals are organized in concisely and in a format easy to compare. In the process of evaluation, the tenderers portfolio and review of past projects may be viewed to determine their skill and suitability for the project requirements.
Wishket also provides a platform from which an employer and employee are able to easily form a binding contract and carry out payments. The payment system is similar to Escrow and provides security of funds till the job is successfully completed. Unlike conventional subcontracting, the safe payment option minimizes costs associates with credibility and mistrust.
The platform has started to increase rapidly and the number of total contracts issued this year is three times more than the previous. As of September 2015, Wishket users consists of more than 10,000 companies seeking specialists and over 15,000 IT specialists looking to complete projects in their skill range. Currently there are more than 2,500 projects ranging from small projects to very large corporate projects.
Park Woo Bum a representative from Wishket said, “in IT outsourcing market, the problems of information imbalance and lack of confidence are prevalent. Wishket strives to be a leader in this field to break down these traditional barriers”. He added, “Our main focus is to create a credible market ecosystem”.
Baek In Soo the investment team leader at Smilegate Investment said, “The Wishket team have many years’ experience in operating this platform. All team members are specialists with high level of service understanding. We are looking forward to building on the existing knowledge and users to expand into related offerings”.
Wishket revealed their intention is to utilize the investment to provide users with more security and functionality.