In an era where the skilled trades are running out of skilled workers, VeroSkills thinks it’s found the fix. The AI-driven hiring platform—built to address what economists call a $1 trillion blue-collar labor crisis—has just closed a $5.3 million funding round led by Yonder Ventures, with participation from Circadian Ventures, Motivate Ventures, Colchuck, and Fleetio founder Tony Summerville.
The capital infusion will help VeroSkills accelerate its blistering growth: in the past six weeks alone, the company says it’s locked in $15 million in annual recurring revenue. The reason? It’s connecting employers with millions of pre-screened, ready-to-work candidates from immigrant, refugee, and underserved communities—faster than traditional staffing firms ever could.
“What staffing and recruitment agencies do in weeks and months, we do in days and hours,” said Daniel Walsh, Founder and CEO of VeroSkills. “Given the severity of the labor crisis, there’s no time to waste.”
AI Meets the Skilled Labor Shortage
The U.S. and much of the developed world are facing a massive talent gap in blue-collar sectors—from manufacturing and logistics to construction and maintenance. For every five workers who retire, only two new ones enter the field, leaving millions of roles unfilled. Manufacturing alone is short hundreds of thousands of workers, a number projected to climb into the millions by 2030.
VeroSkills is betting that AI can fix that. The platform uses machine learning to match employers with qualified, fully authorized workers across the U.S., EU, and Canada—cutting hiring times from months to hours. It also handles multi-language screening and onboarding in 52 languages, an edge that’s helping small and midsize businesses (SMBs) compete for talent they’ve traditionally struggled to reach.
Beyond Speed: Retention and Reliability
Unlike many gig or labor platforms that focus on speed alone, VeroSkills also touts longer-term retention. According to company data, 93% of employers report that VeroSkills hires stay two to three times longer than those hired through traditional agencies—a critical advantage in sectors plagued by turnover.
That’s because the company isn’t just connecting resumes to job posts; it’s leveraging AI to understand worker intent, background, and readiness to start immediately. Workers are also fully verified and authorized to work from day one, minimizing paperwork and compliance headaches.
“VeroSkills represents the next generation of AI-first labor marketplaces,” said Colin Gardiner, Founding Partner at Yonder Ventures. “What wasn’t economically viable before—staffing small businesses efficiently at scale—is now possible with AI.”
Investors See a Market Ready for Reinvention
The funding reflects growing investor confidence in platforms that blend AI, automation, and human capital management (HCM).
“Under Daniel’s leadership, the team is achieving standout results in an industry historically slow to evolve,” said Mike Dowdle, Founding Partner at Circadian Ventures.
“VeroSkills has cracked the code on what staffing agencies have struggled with for decades: speed, scale, and retention,” added Lauren Deluca, Founding and Managing Partner at Motivate Ventures.
The company’s AI-first model may give it an edge in a recruiting market projected to be worth over $600 billion globally by 2030, as automation increasingly reshapes hiring processes.
The Bigger Picture
While white-collar workers debate whether AI will take their jobs, blue-collar employers are struggling to find anyone to fill them. VeroSkills’ approach—using AI to connect overlooked workers with companies that need them—shows how technology can solve real economic pain points, not just streamline office workflows.
If the company can continue scaling at its current pace, it might not just be a win for AI in HR—it could become a critical tool in keeping the world’s essential industries running.
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