As it grows its business through strategic acquisitions, global expansion company Velocity Global has added a former Uber executive to its leadership team.
Eric Schroeder was announced this week as the company’s new chief operating officer in a role that will, in part, help to scale Velocity Global’s worldwide team.
Schroeder most recently was vice president of operations for Bay Area’s Ghost, an autonomous driving company that recently raised a $100 million Series D funding round for its universal collision avoidance technology.
Prior to that, he was head of global safety operations for Uber and held roles as general manager for Utah and Northern California. In addition to his experience with technology companies, Schroeder is also a veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces and completed two combat deployments to Afghanistan.
“My experience at Uber inspired a passion for the future of work — the balance of opportunity and owning how, when, and where you work,” Schroeder said in a statement. “I’ve long been impressed with Ben [Wright] and the team at Velocity Global where I now direct that passion in a way the world has not yet experienced. The team built and maintains the backbone of global employment, enhanced by a first-class technology experience. The multifaceted platform connects employers with talent anywhere in the world.”
Founded in 2014, Velocity helps other companies hire workers around the world. If an American company wants to hire employees in the U.K., it can hire through Velocity Global rather than take on the cost of setting up a corporate structure in another country.
Wright, Velocity’s founder and CEO, said Schroeder’s experience with Uber and its complex infrastructure was a primary selling point in bringing him to the company.
“His global operations expertise aligns directly with our global work platform for an always-on connection between employers and the talent who rely on us for everything from timely, accurate payroll to customized compliant solutions in global markets,” Wright said in a statement.
This move comes at an interesting time for the fast-growing Denver company.
Earlier this year, Velocity raised $100 million and acquired a competitor in the space as it prepared to cross $1 billion in revenue. Prior to that fundraise, Velocity had been bootstrapped and not taken on any outside funding.
Now, with an influx of capital on hand, the company is aggressively making acquisitions to bolster its business.
Following onto the April deal for competitor iWorkGlobal, Velocity acquired Shield GEO, a global Employer of Record provider, in mid-July.
Wright said at the time that the acquisition was a directly related to the company’s previously announced financing and was part of a strategy to take advantage of a changing “employment equation.”
“For the last seven years we built our platform to support how and where work gets done. This now allows us the strategic position to scale up to meet the accelerated demand from the shifting workforce,” he said in a statement.
