Shakers

Market position

Shakers positions itself as a European alternative to established freelance marketplaces, and press coverage frames it as a rival to Upwork, Fiverr, Malt and Toptal. The company aims to become the leading European platform for sourcing tech freelancers, citing a European IT outsourcing market projected to grow from €180B to more than €280B by 2030. It has received recognition including the South Summit most scalable startup award, LinkedIn Top Startup 2024 and inclusion by WIRED among cutting-edge European startups.

Shakers differentiates from generic freelance marketplaces through end-to-end AI orchestration rather than sourcing alone: pre-vetted talent via Shakers Verified, matching across more than 1,000 data points, and the ability to assemble full hybrid teams — including AI agents — instead of placing individual contractors. It emphasises a closed, selective community (described as the top 7% of Spanish digital talent), larger and longer engagements than typical gig platforms (stated €15,000–€100,000 project values and 3–6 month durations versus €500–€2,000 and 3–6 weeks elsewhere), and employment-like benefits for freelancers such as banking, insurance and productivity services bundled in its Freelancer OS.

Technology

The platform is built around an AI matchmaking engine that assesses more than 1,000 data points per profile, covering hard and soft skills, experience, prior comparable project outcomes and cultural fit. Shakers Verified is a pre-vetting layer that verifies skills and evaluates freelancer profiles, and AI-conducted interviews are used to standardise and scale evaluation. Additional components include Shakers AI, described as a copilot that helps clients define project scopes and assemble and manage teams, and Talent Insight for comparing candidates. The acquired Rviewer technology evaluates developers' coding across quality, scalability and testing. The application also consolidates payments, contracts and daily project work, and the roadmap includes integrating autonomous AI agents alongside human freelancers.

Go-to-market

Shakers sells directly to companies through its sales and business development teams, with segmented propositions for SMEs, startups and enterprises, book-a-demo and contact flows on its site, and published customer case studies. On the supply side it recruits freelancers into a closed, application-based community with a talent success team and support for new freelancers, including partnerships such as one with Taxdown for administrative paperwork. Content marketing includes downloadable reports on labour flexibility and remote work and guidance on AI ROI.

Companies hiring flexible technology talent, segmented into SMEs, startups and enterprises. Named clients include Microsoft, Inditex, Telefónica, KingMakers, Civitatis, Applivery, Lemonlight, Auren Digital, Peldaño, BioSmartData, Crowdy and Padmi. On the supply side, the target users are experienced freelance technology professionals — developers, data scientists and engineers, product managers, designers and marketing specialists — as well as small freelance teams operating as squads.

Geography

Headquartered in Madrid, with a "Shakers House" office there and remote-first, hybrid working arrangements. The company operates across Europe, with country-focused business development teams for the UK, France, Portugal and Italy, and reports that 30% of revenue is generated organically from European markets outside its home market. Series A proceeds are earmarked for further European expansion.

History

According to the company, Shakers launched to the world in 2021, building its community and product and closing a first €1M investment round. In 2022 it reached its first 100 companies and 1,000 freelancers with a team of about 10 people. By the end of 2023 it reported more than 900 registered companies, 400 published projects and over 6,000 freelancers. In 2024 it began European expansion, won the South Summit award for most scalable company, was named a LinkedIn Top Startup, exceeded €15M in turnover and grew past 45 employees. In 2025 it raised a €14M Series A led by Partech and Kfund, reported 10,000 validated freelancers, over 450 client companies and a team of 60+ (elsewhere stated as 90 people), and launched AI-powered capabilities for assembling hybrid teams. It also acquired Barcelona-based AI startup Rviewer to strengthen technical assessment.