Cloudstaff Modern Workforce, a leading global cloud-based workforce provider, today announced the successful completion of its US$20 million Series B with investment from Philippines-focused private equity firm Navegar.
Despite the deal closing amidst the disruptions caused by the global coronavirus pandemic, Cloudstaff has continued to thrive using its remote working expertise to help businesses around the world shift to a cloud-based remote working model. Throughout the pandemic, Cloudstaff has kept its clients operational, and as the world adopts a new model where remote working is the norm and businesses start to chart their recovery strategies, Cloudstaff’s cloud-based workforce model is more relevant than ever. Since 2009, Cloudstaff has been building the technology, processes and procedures that prepared the company to meet the recent spike in demand for a remote workforce.
Cloudstaff has developed a two-prong approach to cloud-based employment success – developing proprietary technology and investing in culture. By hosting thousands of remote workers, using advanced technology, Cloudstaff embraces each employee and supplies them with technology and resources necessary to support their success and the success of the client. Cloudstaff has made employee engagement and collaboration from distant locations possible where workflow is managed without interruption, regardless of physical location or time zone. The cloud workforce is capable of meeting client needs during all 24 hours of the day as each team member picks up the work of another when their time zone opens for business. This strong, worldwide team culture has dispelled the notion of professional loneliness that remote employees often experience.
Private equity firm Navegar had been searching for a company with the ability to manage remote employees and scale to meet the needs of businesses around the world. They found that business model in Cloudstaff. Led by CEO Lloyd Ernst, Cloudstaff is managed by a group of accomplished and recognized leaders, fluent in the language of the remote workforce. Navegar decided that Cloudstaff had the right combination of experience, and a proven record of remote workforce success, that was worthy of their investment.
In addition to contributing financial capital, Navegar Partners Javier Infante and Rodelio Manansala have joined the seven-person Cloudstaff Board of Directors. These individuals have extensive knowledge of the outsourcing industry and were early movers in the Philippines contact center industry, Infante having co-founded pioneer outsourcing company Ambergris Solutions in 2000 and Manansala being a key member of its management team. In 2015, Navegar also invested in outsourcing startup TaskUs, which they exited in 2018 when the company was acquired by Blackstone.
“We have been thoroughly impressed with the company Lloyd has built,” said Infante. “We see many potential investment opportunities in outsourcing regularly and Cloudstaff is bar-none a top player in every respect, from the quality of its management team to the uniqueness of its employee culture.”
“With Navegar, we have found the best partner possible to grow our business model around the world,” said Lloyd Ernst, Cloudstaff founder and CEO. “Now, we can expand our footprint and employ more cloud-based employees to meet the needs of businesses, immediately, especially during this worldwide transition from a single-office location to a work-from-home situation. We didn’t need a pandemic to prove we had the right technology in place, we knew our formula worked.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to consider employing cloud workforces. Cloudstaff’s technology and culture were designed to meet this need and empower workers in traditionally underemployed economies around the world.
About Navegar
Navegar is a Philippines-focused, Manila-based private equity firm that provides growth capital to established companies. Navegar invests in both primary and secondary share offerings, and actively seeks to maximize the value of its portfolio companies by providing financial, operational and strategic guidance.
Established in 2012, Navegar manages Navegar Fund I and Navegar Fund II, with total assets under management of over USD 300 million.
About Cloudstaff
Cloudstaff is a premium outsourcing provider that helps businesses to grow and achieve greater sustainability by providing high quality staff, world class facilities, and removing the burdens of recruitment, HR, and payroll.
Established in China in 2005 by founder and current CEO, Lloyd Ernst, Cloudstaff originally focused on software development for Western markets, however, in 2010, Ernst identified the Philippines as an emerging market for the provision of outsourcing services.
After establishing a Philippines office in the Metro Clark region of Central Luzon, the company grew rapidly, finding great success in providing outsourced accounting, finance, administration, and real estate support staff to the Australian market.
With an ever-growing workforce, Cloudstaff expanded its operations by opening seven new offices in Metro Clark, as well as two offices in Manila (Ortigas and Makati), and an operational hub in Cebu.
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