Remote Technology

Remote Technology

Job van der Voort, formerly GitLab's VP of Product, co-founded Remote with Marcelo Lebre in 2019 after experiencing firsthand the friction of international hiring. The company established its headquarters in San Francisco but operates with a fully distributed workforce, mirroring the global employment model it sells. Remote's core product is an employer-of-record service that legally employs workers on behalf of client companies in jurisdictions where those companies lack a legal entity. Remote's deployment focuses entirely on its own platform operations rather than third-party investment. The company raised $496 million across multiple funding rounds from investors including Accel, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, General Catalyst, and Sequoia Capital. Its service covers payroll, tax withholding, stock option administration, and localized benefits across every major geographic region. Remote owns its legal infrastructure in most operating countries, unlike competitors who rely on third-party local partners — a difference the company argues improves compliance and speed. By April 2022, Remote closed a $300 million Series C led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a post-money valuation near $3 billion (per Reuters, 2022). The firm has since expanded beyond employer-of-record into contractor management and a global HRIS platform, Remote Talent, targeting the full lifecycle of distributed team management. Adjacent offerings include Remote for Refugees, a nonprofit initiative providing free global employment services for displaced workers. Remote's structural differentiator is ownership of local legal entities in the countries it serves, a model that requires deep capital investment and legal complexity. Most competitors lease these entities from local partners, which limits speed and control. Remote's full-time distributed workforce — the company has never maintained a central office — also serves as a living proof of concept for the enterprise product it sells.