Shiftgig, a Chicago company that connects companies with workers looking to pick up shifts, announced on Tuesday that it has raised a $20 million Series C round of funding. The company will use the funding to expand its sales and marketing operations and continue improving upon its core technology product.
A spokesperson for Shiftgig said the company plans to hire 100 additional employees this year to meet that goal, a little more than half of which will be based in Chicago. Shiftgig currently has 200 employees.
“The success of Uber, Lyft, Postmates and other mobile consumer marketplaces has demonstrated that millions of individuals seek flexibility with their work schedules,” said co-founder and Eddie Lou in a statement. “Consumers aren’t the only ones taking advantage of labor service platforms, businesses are starting to think strategically about the future of workers. This funding will allow us to fulfill our mission of connecting businesses to millions of qualified, hourly workers seeking short term gigs.”
Shiftgig was already entering 2017 with a lot of momentum. Shiftgig said it doubled its client base and increased its year-over-year revenue threefold in 2016. The company also expanded from its original foodservice vertical to cover additional industries like hospitality, retail, experiential marketing and logistics.
The company’s expansion was aided in part by its acquisition of BookedOut — a Chicago event logistics startup that focused exclusively on experiential marketing. At the time of that acquisition, Lou told Built In Chicago that the acquisition was driven by the two companies’ similar visions.
Participants in the Series C, which brings the company’s funding total to $56 million, include DRW Venture Capital, FJ Labs, GGV Capital, KDWC Ventures and an affiliate of William Blair.
“The Shiftgig team continues to execute against its plan by winning enterprise clients that utilize its technology to connect with hourly labor,” said GGV Capital Managing Partner Jeff Richards in a statement. “The company is scaling across multiple verticals and proving that one platform can be winner take all.”
Image via Shiftgig.
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