Gig gets £1m in Seed funding to launch hospitality shift-work app

London-based startup Gig has raised £1m in Seed funding to launch its app which will allow young people to find shift work in the hospitality industry.

Riaz Ladha, chairman of Omni Group – a recruitment agency and facilities management company to the hospitality sector – participated in the round.

Speaking about the funding, Antony Woodcock, co-founder and managing director at Gig, said: “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,” he added.

The idea for the app stemmed from the difficulties faced by Woodcock and his brother when they were trying to hire shift workers for their London high-street sushi restaurant chain.

“With the demands of workers changing at the rate of knots, the traditional temporary recruitment model is fast becoming outdated,”  said Riaz Ladha, chairman of gig’s strategic partner, Omni Group. ‘The millennial generation now wants more flexibility and more immediacy, and gig serves both on a plate.”