Today UK employment startup Slinger announced a new round of Pre-Seed funding of £500,000.
Slinger is a hospitality employment platform that aims to make the CV redundant, providing what it considers the fairest pay and easiest way to get hospitality work in the UK.
Outdated CVs are replaced with videos and creatively written submissions, and staff are vetted in advance, so if a user claims a shift, it’s theirs instantly. The platform is committed to paying the UK’s Real Living Wage (jobs cannot be posted unless they meet this),
Slingers’ beta testing revealed an 80 percent reduction in hiring costs, and a 90 percent acceleration in the time taken to fill roles, compared to conventional practices involving job boards, CV vetting, and interviews.
The average shift is claimed within 60 seconds with the average wage £12.95/hr (8 percent above the London living wage)
The company is spearheaded by Theo-Lee Houston, a Black founder who quit his banker job to work in the hospitality industry for over ten years.
He's focused on innovating outdated processes such as ‘trial shifts’. According to Houston:
“Our product development is laser-focused on developing more human-led tech solutions to connect people with businesses in a sustainable way.”
This helps businesses save time (the average shift goes in 60 seconds), offers them flexibility (temp staff), and saves them money (quick filling of shifts means they can open any time they want to, and our model offers a significantly cheaper pipeline to full-time staff.”
Fuel Ventures leads the funding with participation from: Ufi Ventures, Andrew Gale, Dan Cobley (Ex Google MD), Cornerstone Partners, Resolution Foundation, Tim Parsons (Wage Stream CFO), Gary Elden (EX SThree CEO), Ben Westwood, Richard Ng, plus the Google for Startups Black Founders Fund, where Slinger was selected alongside 15 other business across Europe.
Lead investor, Fuel Ventures shared their thoughts on the startup:
“So many hospitality businesses have problems with staffing, businesses have had to reduce shifts or even shut on certain days because they don’t have the staff and this has very much exacerbated today as a result of Brexit.
Slinger will provide the flexibility for gig workers and alleviate staff shortages by removing the key inefficiencies and roadblocks for people to grab well paid flexible shifts.”
Mariama Boumanjal, Google for Startups Black Founders Fund Manager for Europe and Africa, supported the sentiment:
“We’re looking forward to working with Theo, the founder of Slinger, a platform that addresses the UK’s hospitality worker shortage by connecting the UK’s 10.3 million frontline workers to Living Wage opportunities.”
The investment will help Slinger grow its team and develop a career programme for its users comprising mentorship, up-skilling, interview preparation and work experience.
Lead image: Slinger co-founder and CEO Theo-Lee Houston via Slinger. Photo: Uncredited.
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