Gig, a London-based startup, has raised £1 million in seed funding to launch its app which will allow young people to find shift work in the hospitality industry. Among those who participated in the round was Riaz Ladha, Chairman of Omni Group, which is a recruitment agency and facilities management company to the hospitality sector.
The idea for the app was born when Antony Woodcock, co-founder and managing director at Gig, hit a wall trying to hire shift workers for Maki, the London high-street sushi restaurant chain run by him and his brother Daniel. That’s when Gig was launched as a startup in 2015. It’s a very young business, with an even younger idea.
Woodcock said in a statement,
We always talk about 9 to 5 being so last century. Millennials are used to and seek out things that give them instant gratification. Gig enables people to wake up one morning, find and book work through the app, complete a shift and then they automatically get their pay within 24 hours – it doesn’t get much more instant than that. We also pay holiday pay up front so people will always walk away with that little bit extra in their pocket each week.
The platform derives its uniqueness from its vision of flexibility. It empowers twenty-somethings to live and work as little or as much as they want, while also additionally letting them to top-up their monthly incomes or just earn some weekend “flash money”. And it stays true to its word, too.
Gig’s headline feature is that once a shift is completed, workers automatically get paid within 24 hours. What’s more, there’s no obligation to work a minimum number of days or a minimum number of hours when you sign up to Gig. You simply apply for the shifts that work for you, first checking if they are available.
Millennials (gig seekers) as well as businesses (gig providers) can download the app via Apple App Store or Google Play. Now, it has offices in London and Singapore and is set to expand to other major UK cities later this year. Ladha also talks about this fresh new approach, saying,
With the demands of workers changing at the rate of knots, the traditional temporary recruitment model is fast becoming outdated. The millennial generation now wants more flexibility and more immediacy, and gig serves both on a plate.
Wake up and book yourself some extra pocket-money today!
