It's been a busy year for Panther's founder Matt Redler. Less than one year after launching, he has closed a $2.5 million seed round, following a $1.7 million seed round six months prior.
"The funding is one thing, but we have so much to build on the product side," Redler said. "We move quickly but we’re not even chapter two yet. This is so much larger than a business opportunity; the ripple effects of creating a borderless system is infinite, so we're set on achieving that."
The company launched in June 2020, offering solutions to simplify remote hiring. That November, the company announced it closed two pre-seed rounds with participation from Silicon Valley executives that work at Shutterstock, Instacart and more. While many of those connections were forged through cold introductions done through emails or social media messaging, in the last six months Redler has been able to leverage the company to new heights — and with that comes an increased interest from investors.
"It's a natural adaptation — as a founder from Tampa, who’s networking all over the world, I would reach out cold constantly," he said. "And while that's still in our arsenal, the way we've networked has changed a bit. We've established ourselves as a key foundational player for the next generation of companies, so a lot of people really want to talk to us."
The latest funding includes participation from angel investors Elias Torres, a Tampa resident and co-founder of Drift, along with Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup, Naval Ravikant, co-founder and former CEO of AngelList, and more. The round also received institutional checks from Tribe Capital, Carta Ventures, Hart of Ventures, Accomplice Ventures and Garage Capital.
The funding will be used to triple Redler's team to 30 employees in the next six months, as well as build out its technology. Panther simplifies international hiring by owning the full stack of employment and financial infrastructure, which it then offers in a SaaS feed.
The news come with the addition of a company milestone: partnering with AmazonWeb Services, or AWS. Panther will use AWS' technology within its software, work together on marketing and educational outreach, and have access to the more than 200,000 startups currently in AWS' roster.
"The reason why they want to partner with us, even though we're so young, is the No. 1 need for their startup community is, 'Hey, how do we globalize?'" Redler said. "Since there was no more sophisticated route, even though we’re young and lean, that's a huge win for us."
May has been a solid funding month for Tampa Bay startups. Earlier this month, two local companies announced they closed more than $1 million and $400,000, respectively, through crowdfunding site Republic. Education technology startup PikMyKid closed on a seven-figure deal, and travel startup Vacayou closed a $3.3 million investment, led by Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
