Shiftgig Rakes In $22M For On-Demand Job Marketplace

On-demand job marketplace Shiftgig has raised $22 million in a Series B funding round to further expand its mobile platform, bringing its total raised capital value to $35 million.

The latest round of investment was led by Renren Inc. and was backed by other investors, including Chicago Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, GGV Capital and others, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Most workers in the U.S. are hourly workers, not full-time employees or independent freelancers,” said GGV Capital Managing Partner Jeff Richards in an interview with WSJ. “And hourly workers, since Obamacare, have been facing the reality that employers want to keep them to 29 hours a week, so they don’t have to pay health care. They’re looking for new shifts to fill in their income gaps.”

Since its inception in 2012, the Uber-like service for on-demand gigs currently employs about 5,000 workers and has expanded to facilitate 15,000 shifts per month, a number that has doubled in the last two months — an indicator of its fast-growing popularity, according to Crain’s Chicago Business.

“We’re just an easier, smarter way for businesses to connect with hourly labor that wants short-term gigs,” CEO Eddie Lou told Crain’s. “It’s not just hospitality, events and retail. We’ve done call center and warehouse assignments and provided receptionists. We’ve supplied workers for conventions.”

The fast growth of the Chicago-based company reflects the ever-increasing appetite of the on-demand labor market. Other than a boost in business resulting from the seasonal demands of the travel and tourism industry, Shiftgig is now also working with other companies, like Nordstrom’s Trunk Club, to provide for labor demands, which also proves to be a more stable revenue opportunity for the company.

However, the mobile-powered on-demand service ecosystem seems to be quickly getting overcrowded with new startups like Handy, an on-demand service mobile app that raised $50 million in Series C funding earlier this month. And now with the arrival of the most recent entrant Google, on-demand service startups like Shiftgig, TaskRabbit, Thumbtack and Fiverr might soon be struggling for their market share.