Worker tech start-up Orka Technology Group has raised £29 million in its latest funding round and will use the capital to fuel the growth of its earned wage access product Orka Pay.
The fundraise was a mixture of debt financing from Sonovate, equity funding involving the British Business Bank Future Fund and existing investors, including former UK CEO of Adecco Peter Searle.
This takes the total raised by Orka to £31.5m since the company launched in 2017.
As well as growing Orka Pay, the Manchester-based start-up will use the funding to double its headcount to 50 this year and invest in its full portfolio of tech solutions for shift workers, which includes the company’s flagship product, labour-as-a-service platform Orka Works.
Orka believes it can cater to the shift towards flexible employment taking place across many industries and capitalise on the growing demand for flexible pay options. Launched last year, Orka Pay enables shift workers at partner organisations to withdraw up to 50 per cent of their wages as soon as they have earned them, providing an alternative to high-interest loans and credit card debt.
The company’s first product, Orka Works, allows workers to quickly and easily find fair and flexible temporary employment with large organisations working in traditional, regulated industries such as security, cleaning and logistics.
It is used by more than 50,000 people in the UK to find work, saw 150 per cent year-on-year revenue growth in Q3 of last year and counts G4S and ISS among its growing client-base. This year, the company will launch its third core product, Orka Check, to improve the process for worker background checks.
More people are looking for work that fits around their life and want the entire process to be less onerous
CEO Tom Pickersgill said: “Four years ago we set out to transform the experience of hourly paid workers, who make up 85 per cent of the global workforce.
“What we’re doing is unique in this sector, and thanks to this funding, we’ll be able to reach many more businesses and their employees in the coming year – and improve the service that we can offer them.
“The worker landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade. More people are looking for work that fits around their life and want the entire process to be less onerous.”
Peter Searle, an existing investor and former CEO of Adecco, said: “Having followed Orka’s journey closely for a few years now, it’s clear that this is a company truly shifting the dial up when it comes to temporary work. They have rightly identified an important gap in the market, as more people seek out flexible employment that fits around their lifestyle.”
The company was recently named in Tech Nation’s Upscale 6.0 programme, reserved for the UK’s leading scale ups.
More on Orka here
