Fiverr raises $60M funding to attract more freelancers online, removes the $5 minimum fee

Online micro task marketplace Fiverr raised $60 million in funding led by Square Peg Capital, along with its existing investors, Bessemer Venture Partners, Qumra Capital, and Accel Partners.

According to Venture Beat, the company said it will use the funding to "aggressively attract the vast majority of freelancers who still operate offline." The additional money brings the company's total funding past the $110 million mark. Its last biggest funding was back in August worth $30 million. The Tel Aviv-based Fiverr created a niche in the sharing economy, where anyone can sell their technical skills such as web design, marketing and writing.

Besides the funding, another big news for the company is its decision to remove its $5 per gig limit, which is where the company got its name in the first place. Now, freelancers can choose how much they will charge for their gig. According to The PE Hub, Fiverr will introduce user-friendly gig packages on different pricing levels over the next weeks. This will make it so much easier for Fiverr sellers to put a price on their services or sell them in bundles. It will also help freelancers earn more as they can now provide greater values for their buyers.

"We started Fiverr to prove that you can bring the world of freelance creative services online and make buying Gigs as easy as purchasing a flat-screen TV online," said Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman in Market Wired. "Today, we see more freelancers shifting their business online, which grabs the attention of investors, and they're driving the overall size of the marketplace to dizzying new heights. With the Gig economy workforce expected to hit 43 percent of the total U.S. workforce by 2020, we're bullish about the economic opportunities we'll create in the near future for our community."

According to Fiverr, it makes about 1 million transactions every month. The company, however, didn't tell the monetary value of this figure.