This scaleup is connecting The Dots for Britain's future workforce with £4m investment

The Dots, a professional network for the future workforce of ‘no collar’ professionals, has raised £4m investment, led by Hambro Perks.

Other notable investors include Sir John Hegarty and Tom Teichman’s investment fund, The Garage Soho, as well as female-focused investors, Angel Academe.

The investment will be used to consolidate The Dots’ position as a British challenger to LinkedIn ahead of its international expansion.

Pip Jamieson, founder of The Dots, said: “Everyone thinks LinkedIn is insurmountable, but that’s exactly why I believe it’s ripe for disruption. LinkedIn was built around the networking needs of a traditional workforce of ‘white collar’ professionals.

“However there is a new professional class emerging, called ‘no collar’ professionals who have different networking preferences and need an alternative solution that reflects their behavioural and career preferences.”

Launched in 2014 by Jamieson, The Dots is a British scaleup designed around the networking needs of ‘no collar’ creatives, freelancers, entrepreneurs and millennials.

With 80m of these globally - costing a supposed £11bn annually to recruit - The Dots are said to be meeting their networking needs.

The Dots has around 250,000 members and current clients include Google, Burberry, Sony Pictures and Warner Music.

The Dots facilitates networking by collecting data on full teams that create projects. Collecting this data will enable machine learning to make personalised recommendations to clients and in the longer-term, will enable full team hires.

With just 2.2 per cent of all global venture capital going to female founders in 2016, The Dots’ founder Pip Jamieson stuck with her seed investors Hambro Perks, The Garage Soho as well as Angel Academe.

New investors include Force Over Mass and Numis Securities. The Dots originally intended to raise £3m, but extended the round to £4m due to investor interest.

Dominic Perks, of Hambro Perks, added: “Britain is the most creative, innovation nation in the world and The Dots will allow our creatives to showcase their talents on a global stage.”

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