1.7 million euros for the LinkedIn of craft enterprises

Berlin-based start-up Electry becomes Power Us, raising €1.7 million in a funding round.

A LinkedIn for professionals is how founder Julian Lindinger describes his vision for the platform Electry. The Berlin-based start-up is now not only getting a new name - Power Us - but also €1.7 million in a funding round, as reported by Handelsblatt

. Investors are the incubator Y Combinator from the US, in which Power Us was already accepted in 2019. In addition, HV Capital and business angels such as Maximilian Viessmann of the eponymous group and Neal O`Mara of Dropbox, as well as the founders of Flixbus and Personio belong to it.

Power Us includes 20,000 professionals in its database, which companies can access for a monthly fee. With the investors' money, the start-up wants to attract new companies as well as new professionals. Maximilian Viessmann sees a gap in the market where Power Us fits: "We know from our more than 30,000 partner craft businesses that the biggest brake on growth is the lack of skilled personnel." A first step, he says, is to know where to look for the right skilled workers. With Power Us, Viessmann wants to make "the trade attractive again".

Currently, the start-up has 14 employees, the founders do not reveal figures on turnover and profit. Power Us also wants to help skilled workers take the next steps in their careers, as well as "increase transparency in the marketplace so workers know what's fair and if they have a better opportunity," Lindinger said.