Europe is running out of electricians. Not slowly either. There are currently around 28 million skilled blue-collar workers across the EU, and industry estimates suggest an additional 5.8 million workers will be needed by 2030 to keep pace with renewable energy buildout, grid modernisation, and industrial expansion. Italian startup Gyver is building the infrastructure to close that gap, and it just raised €1.4 million to move faster.
Gyver, based in Brescia, Italy, announced a €1.4 million pre-seed funding round in May 2026 to strengthen its technology and provide a better experience for both electricians and employers. The round was led by Brighteye, with participation from āltitude, Vento Ventures, Zanichelli Venture, existing investor Antler, and several business angels.
The timing is deliberate. Europe has 2.7 million electrical workers and a €3 billion hiring market that has been chronically underserved. General job boards were not built for this workforce. Electricians have historically found work through referrals and word of mouth, and most digital tools on the market simply do not reflect that reality.
How Gyver Actually Works:
Gyver has built a conversational hiring platform where technicians provide structured information such as experience, certifications, availability, and salary expectations, which is then converted into detailed candidate profiles for employers in sectors like energy, construction, and infrastructure. The matching happens primarily over WhatsApp, keeping the process familiar and low-friction for workers who are not sitting at a desk all day.
The platform currently has a community of over 25,000 electricians. Anonymity is a core feature: workers can explore opportunities without their current employer finding out. For operators assessing AI workforce tools in skilled trades, this is one of the more thoughtful product decisions Gyver has made.
Founded on Firsthand Experience:
Co-founders Francesco Defendi, Leo Acciarri, and Mattia Zarrelli previously established a general contracting business for solar installations serving industrial SMEs, where they witnessed skilled labour shortages disrupt projects. That experience gave the team a clear view of where existing hiring tools were failing.
The company was founded during an Antler founder residency in Fall 2024. Francesco Defendi has been direct about the mission: electricians are among the most important yet overlooked workers in the modern economy, embodying a combination of technical knowledge and physical craft that AI cannot replicate.
The Roadmap Beyond Hiring:
Gyver is not positioning itself as just a job board. Beyond recruitment, the company plans to expand into upskilling, training, and workforce productivity solutions for electricians. In the long term, Gyver aims to develop modern technical tools for areas such as electrical design and PLC workflows.
The framing here is worth paying attention to. Gyver will initially focus on Italy, one of Europe’s largest construction and electrical contracting markets, before expanding across the EU. A focused geographic start before a broader European rollout is a sensible sequencing choice, especially in a market where trust and local employer relationships matter.
Why Investors are Paying Attention:
David Guérin, Partner at Brighteye, pointed to something specific when explaining the investment: Gyver uses AI not to replace skilled electricians but to make each one more productive and more valuable, which is a distinction that matters. That framing aligns with what a lot of smart capital is looking for right now, AI that augments workers in roles where physical presence is non-negotiable.
With general job boards like Indeed and StepStone not effectively catering to blue-collar workers and existing trade-specific platforms being fragmented and outdated, Gyver positions itself to become the leading infrastructure provider for the electrical workforce across Europe. For founders and operators watching the future-of-work space, Gyver is one of the more grounded bets in the skilled blue-collar hiring category right now.
What Comes Next for Gyver:
With the pre-seed closed, Gyver’s immediate priorities are building out its AI agents and matching workflows, and deepening its employer network across Italy before the European expansion begins. The learning and upskilling side of the platform is still in development, with a waiting list open for electricians who want early access to courses built around real technical skills like electrical design and PLC programming.
The company is also hiring. For anyone who has spent time in the skilled trades or workforce tech space and wants to work on a problem with real industrial weight behind it, Gyver is worth a look at https://gyver.work/join.
