Recruitment Europe

Most organisations hire freelancers. Very few have a structured way to integrate that talent into their workforce strategy and their business.

Malt bridges that gap. Founded in France in 2013, Malt is a freelance management platform built around a community of one million independent experts across Europe and the Middle East. It combines the reach of an AI-powered talent marketplace with the rigour of an enterprise-grade management system, giving organisations a single place to source, contract, pay and govern their freelance workforce.

The model reflects a simple insight. Access alone is not enough; organisations need structure and governance to support it. Sourcing, compliance, payments and performance data all run through one connected system, so that speed and oversight work together rather than against each other.

“We’ve always seen Malt as a community first. This isn’t a transactional marketplace. We are dealing with people who change everything,” says Vincent Huguet, co-founder and CEO. “Companies need both access to the right talent and the ability to manage it. We bring those together.”

A Search Engine for Talent

Malt functions as a search-driven marketplace, a model that is harder to build. There is no job-posting system and no reverse auction. Instead, hiring managers define what they need and the platform surfaces relevant freelancers within minutes. The client pitches the project to the freelancer, not the other way around. On average, projects go live in six days.

This inversion changes the quality of the relationship from the outset. Freelancers are not assigned to projects. They see the brief, evaluate the client and choose whether to engage. The result is a workforce that arrives with intent, not obligation.

The community behind this model runs deep. The average freelancer on Malt is 37 years old, commands a daily rate of more than €600 and has more than seven years of experience. Enterprise clients frequently describe these professionals as ‘the most internal of the external.’ They choose their projects, embed in teams for an average of six months’ work as true sparring partners for in-house employees, while remaining fully independent.

Direct access reshapes the economics. Removing traditional staffing intermediaries lowers costs by 20 to 50 percent compared with outsourcing or consulting providers. The platform automates contracting, invoicing and payments, cutting administrative workload by up to 80 percent. Freelancers are paid within two to five days of project completion.

Compliance Built into the Workflow

Governance on Malt is not a layer added after the fact. It is embedded in the platform. No project begins unless the freelancer has met all documentation requirements for the relevant client and country. Contracting, payments and compliance are integrated into a single workflow, not spread across separate tools or teams.

This multi-local approach matters. Regulatory requirements vary significantly across European markets. Enterprises working with freelancers on long-term engagements need systems that reflect those differences at the local level. Malt builds its compliance and payment infrastructure country by country, ensuring consistency without introducing delay.

Across more than 700,000 delivered projects, this model has produced zero worker reclassifications and no related litigation. Freelancers maintain open profiles and can be sourced by multiple clients, preserving their independence.