Kolabtree.com, the freelance platform for scientists, has announced that it now has over 20,000 registered freelancers on board. This new milestone cements the company’s position as the world’s go-to platform for scientific expertise.
Since its launch in 2015, the company has grown by 100% year-on-year. During the coronavirus pandemic last year, over 6,500 freelancers joined the platform to offer their services across industries and subject areas.
Ashmita Das, CEO and Co-founder of Kolabtree, says that the pandemic played a key role in accelerating virtual collaborations.
Speaking about the growth in registered freelancers, she says, “Due to cuts in research funding and pandemic-induced lockdowns, the last year has been a particularly difficult time for researchers and academia across the globe. Kolabtree has helped scientists move towards a more sustainable, location-independent way of working.”
She adds, “Businesses worldwide are becoming more receptive to a hybrid or remote workforce. Traditional brick-and-mortar industries like medical devices and life sciences are now hiring experts on a one-off or contract basis. During the last year, we saw a 50% spike in demand for freelance medical writers from these industries.”
Brazil-based chemical engineer Hugo Lisboa joined the platform in Feb 2020 and has been exclusive with the platform, reaching the five-figure mark in earnings within a year. “The pandemic has created different opportunities that we have to adapt to,” he says. “Now that more people are working from home, they’re thinking about re-inventing their business ideas and following dreams that they’ve been sitting on for years.”
Abhijeet Lale, materials researcher based in France, says, “I started freelancing last year in the midst of the pandemic as I had a lot of time on my hands. Kolabtree has been a great way of finding projects during this uncertain time. It not only helps me build a second source of income, but I also get to use skills that I might not get to use in my day job.”
Some of the freelancers on the platform are established, full-time consultants and depend solely on Kolabtree for projects. Others freelance to supplement their income as well as work out of interest on projects that need their niche skill-sets.
Alex Lucio, founder of medical device company 3B Medical has used Kolabtree to source technical experts on a regular basis. He says, “The quality of experts available was excellent and we have typically found selection, bidding and hiring to be effortless.”
During the last year, Kolabtree’s experts have helped medtech companies apply for regulatory approval, food companies launch innovative products, and life science companies publish fact-checked content. The bulk of the newly registered freelancers have expertise in regulatory writing (FDA, MDR, CMC documents), virology, statistics and medical content writing. Kolabtree’s freelancers are currently distributed in over 170 countries.