Firstwork

Firstwork is an applied AI platform for employers and staffing firms with large frontline workforces. Its agents collect and verify documents, run right-to-work and compliance steps, and move workers from application to first shift inside existing HR, payroll and screening systems, reducing manual onboarding work.

Firstwork is a Y Combinator Summer 2024 company founded by Vardhan Kapoor, formerly at Remitly and Deliveroo, and Shubham Choudhary, a former director of engineering at Deel who also worked on Rippling's global employment stack. It sells AI agents that sit on top of an employer's existing HR, payroll and screening software and handle the stretch between job offer and first shift: document checks, right-to-work verification, background screening, training, payroll setup, recurring compliance and worker support. Agents text or call candidates to chase missing documents, and clients decide how much compliance work the agents take on, so a client's own screening vendors can still run background checks. Every action is logged. Deployment starts with forward-deployed engineers mapping compliance checks, credentialing rules, approval chains and exceptions, which Firstwork converts into a structured workflow model that agents then execute. Products include Document Verification, Browser Automation for portals, a Workflow Engine, Continuous Compliance and a Recollection Agent for expired documents. Firstwork announced a $15 million Series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital on October 21, 2026, bringing total funding to $20 million, and plans a London base for European clients. The company reports that more than 150,000 frontline workers start work through the platform each month and that customers cut time per new hire by up to 90%. Named customers include Deel, Job&Talent, Relay, Wonolo and BGSF. It competes with frontline hiring platforms such as Fountain.

Category

Industry & Government

Pricing

Contact for pricing

Target Market

COOs, CHROs, Heads of Workforce Operations, CIOs

Deployment

Cloud-first

Founded

2024

Team Size

11-50

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  Document Verification

  Verifies IDs, licences and other documents automatically, which removes a manual review step that slows the path to a first shift.

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  Browser Automation

  Carries out task-based actions in third-party portals, so agents can complete steps in systems that lack a usable integration.

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  Workflow Engine

  Builds end-to-end automations with built-in logic from the mapped compliance rules, approval chains and exceptions of each client operation.

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  Continuous Compliance

  Monitors licences and credentials in real time after onboarding, so a lapse is caught before a worker is scheduled on a shift.

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  Recollection Agent

  Contacts workers to collect renewals and expired documents, reducing the manual chasing that compliance teams otherwise do by phone and email.

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  Right to Work and Screening (Netherlands)

  Handles statutory verification, right-to-work checks and pre-employment screening for Dutch workforces, a product listed separately on the company's site.

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  Driver onboarding at a delivery network

  A delivery network such as Relay moves new drivers through document collection and checks by text and phone, shortening the wait before their first delivery shift.

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  Credential tracking for nurse staffing

  A healthcare staffing firm monitors licences across its workforce and has agents collect renewals before credentials lapse and block placements.

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  Compliance across employer-of-record clients

  Deel, both a customer and an investor through Deel Ventures, is listed as using the platform for its global payroll and HR workforce operations.

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  Lifting first-shift conversion

  Firstwork reports that one of its largest customers tripled the number of qualified applicants reaching a first shift; the figure is company-reported and the customer is unnamed.

Firstwork publishes no prices or metering model (checked November 2, 2026), so budgets come from a sales conversation. Investor Earlybird says the company has won seven-figure deals, which suggests large-contract pricing, though that figure says nothing about a typical contract or what a smaller operator would pay.

This page was written from 6 sources, 4 on domains other than firstwork.com.

1. 1.firstwork.com — firstwork.comvendor
2. 2.firstwork.com — firstwork raises 5m seedvendor
3. 3.techfundingnews.com — firstwork raises 15m series a earlybird frontline workforce
4. 4.itbrief.co.uk — firstwork raises usd 15 million to expand ai onboarding
5. 5.inc42.com — y combinator backed firstwork nets 15 mn to expand footprint
6. 6.fountain.com — frontline workers dont want ai out of hiring they want it ou