They sell access to people. The client is a company that needs an engineer, an expert or a team, and does not want to find, hire or employ them itself.

These firms make money in a few ways:

The clients range from start-ups and mid-sized companies abroad to large companies, and more and more, AI companies.

A talent marketplace keeps a pool of engineers it has tested, and matches them with companies that need them. Many serve companies in the United States and Europe that want to hire engineers in India and other countries, without opening an office there. The engineer usually works remotely, as a contractor through the platform or as a direct hire. The platform earns a margin or a fee.

Others of this kind are RemoteStar, RemoteEngine and Olibr, which place remote developers, SkillsCapital, which supplies tested engineers and teams on demand, and EMB Global, a marketplace for outsourced teams.

Recruitment platforms. Many small firms here are recruitment tools and services. They help employers find, screen and interview candidates, and many now use AI to do it: GoodSpace AI, CodeRound AI, NextHire (Algotale), Suitable AI, Hire22.ai, Flipped.ai, Joblet-AI, TapTalent.ai, Optimhire IT Solutions, Mentorpal.ai Tech Hiring and others. Shrofile builds video hiring profiles. The software that companies use to run their own hiring is covered in the product-companies collection. (More on it in Market Segment 12.4, Applicant tracking systems (ATS) and recruitment marketing, and Market Segment 12.5, AI recruiting and talent intelligence platforms, in Industry Vertical 12, HR tech, in the product-companies collection.)

On a freelance or gig platform, a company hires a person for a task, a number of hours, or a fixed project. The person works as an independent contractor, not an employee. They are paid for the work, not a salary, and they don't get an employer's benefits, such as paid leave or insurance. When the task ends, they look for the next one.

Others of this kind are ClanX, an Indian platform supplying tested freelance engineers, Flexing It, which matches independent consultants with companies, Globelance, TerraGiG and ExpertsHub.ai, Awign, which supplies gig workers for company tasks, and Incluziv (Gig Consultants). ProLegion builds software for companies to manage their contractors.

Paying contractors in other countries is itself a business. (More on it in Market Segment 12.2, Global payroll and employer of record (EOR), in Industry Vertical 12, HR tech, in the product-companies collection.)

AI models learn from data that people create, label and check. AI companies need experts to write examples, judge a model's answers and correct its mistakes, in fields from coding to medicine to law. AI-data-work marketplaces find those experts and pay them by the task or the hour, usually as freelancers.

Mindrift and Awign Expert, a unit of Awign, do the same.

The amount of work depends on how much the AI companies need at any time, so it can rise and fall quickly. The firms that build the platforms and run the data work for AI companies are covered in the services-world collection. (More on them in Company Tier 8, Specialist firms built around one skill, in the services-world collection.)

A hire-train-deploy firm recruits people, often fresh graduates, and trains them in a specific technology. It then places them with a client company for a fixed period, often a year or two, while they stay on its own payroll. At the end, the client may hire them directly. The client pays the firm for the placement, which covers the cost of the training.

Many of these firms ask their trainees to sign a service bond: an agreement to stay for a set period, or pay back part of the training cost if they leave early. Between training and placement, trainees may wait on a bench until a client needs them.

A hire-train-deploy firm hires people, often fresh graduates, trains them in one technology, often under a service bond, keeps them on the bench until a client needs them, and then places them with a client for a fixed period, all on its own payroll. At the end, the client may hire them directly.

Others of this kind are AccioJob, which trains candidates and runs hiring drives for employers, and Revolent Group, which trains new engineers in Salesforce and places them with clients.

Talent marketplaces and remote-hiring platforms: hackajob, Turing, Uplers, Weekday AI, Smart Working, Crossover, Talent500 and Toptal

Freelance, gig and contract marketplaces: Flexiple, Instawork and Talentgigs

AI-data-work marketplaces: Alignerr, Mercor, DataAnnotation and Soul AI

Hire-train-deploy: Revature and Studyecart