The Spanish startup Shakers, promoted by Lanzadera, Juan Roig’s business accelerator, has just closed its first round of funding with the support of some of the leading investors in the technology ecosystem.
This round, which involves €500,000 in direct investment and a further €300,000 in debt, will enable the company to speed-up the development of its technology and the growth of its community.
It was founded in 2019 by Adrián de Pedro, Jaime Castillo and Héctor Mata. These entrepreneurs have already succeeded with projects such as Viaja Way, an online travel agency with a turnover of more than €25m, or MR Hapinness.
The platform
Shakers is the first online platform that allows companies and freelance teams to connect in an online environment to develop projects in a flexible and remote way.
During these 2 years, Shakers has been self-financing in order to grow and develop its technology and now, with the external investment, they expect to grow faster while maintaining the same efficiency in the use of capital.
“At Shakers, we believe that the future of the labour market is a much more liquid environment. We are going to see fewer and fewer giant organisations and more and more super-specialised teams, connecting with each other on demand. Today the best talents want to choose not only the company, but also the project in which to work. Flexibility and freedom are already ahead of more classical attributes such as security or stability.” states Héctor Mata, co-founder and CEO of Shakers.
Growth plan
Given the current situation of the labour market, also worsened by the outbreak of the pandemic, Shakers offers a platform for different professional profiles to connect with specific company projects in just a few clicks.
For the time being, it is focused on the domestic market, whilst they hope to be able to start their international expansion from 2022.
“Over the next 10 years, more than 1 billion workers will be connecting to businesses in a much more flexible way and we believe that Shakers is at a very good time to start growing and consolidating our model so that we can have a leading position.” states Jaime Castillo, co-founder and CMO.
Shakers Community
Among its community of professionals we find many former consultants of the big four or many former employees of large software, data or marketing startups who have made the leap to the freelance model. Among its main clients: Caixa Bank, Grupo Barceló and Deliveroo.
“On the platform, in addition to many workers who are leaving their companies, we see many young people, with a lifestyle that is much more adapted to this new way of working,” states Adrian de Pedro, co-founder and CPO.
Shakers is committed to a complete change in the model of work platforms: now it is the company that posts the project and the freelance teams apply to them. In addition, a collaborative working environment is enabled to make remote working easier, one of the big setbacks with companies today.
With this project, Shakers joins the race of startups that aim to lead the ‘future of work’, a market that is estimated to multiply by 10 in the next 3 years.