The popularity of flexible work arrangements has skyrocketed due to COVID, however, flexible work arrangements can have a larger impact. According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, flexible work arrangements are a primary driver for improving gender equality in the workplace and encouraging more roles to be flexible could solve the gender pay gap. Juggle is the employment platform solely dedicated to flexible roles. The platform matches companies with top-tier mid and senior-level talent seeking flexible working arrangements. Juggle has already been used by companies such as Whitehat, Hubble, onfido, and more.
London TechWatch caught up with CEO and Founder Romanie Thomas to learn more about how her experience as a headhunter inspired her to create Juggle to increase the number of women in senior leadership roles, her experience fundraising as a sole founder, and the company’s latest funding round, which brings the total funding raised to £2.9M across three rounds.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We’ve raised $2.1M in a Seed round. We plan to raise our Series A in 2021. Investors include San Francisco-based VC firms Social Capital and 7percent Ventures and London-based Oxford Capital. Angel investors include Andreas Mihalovits, Andrew Gault, Andrew J Scott, Charlie Kemper, Charlie Songhurst, Curtis Chambers, Rajiv Kapoor, and Pip Wilson.
Tell us about the product or service Juggle offers.
Juggle is a SaaS platform helping companies to find, manage, and pay outstanding experienced professionals, on a flexible basis.
What inspired the start of Juggle?
I’m an experienced Headhunter and I was frustrated at the lack of women in business leadership. Flexibility goes to the heart of solving the gender gap, because it enables people (not just women) to balance exciting careers with their home lives too.
How is Juggle different?
Although there are a number of platforms in the hiring and HR management space, very few are flexible first and for this segment of customers (non-technical, experience-level talent).
Juggle’s vision is to become the go-to place for professionals to work flexibly and consequently unify what is today, a fragmented market for companies and professionals alike, looking to navigate this new flexible world.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
Ultimately, we’re disrupting the traditional recruitment industry by making hiring seamless, flexible, and transparent. That industry today is worth $0.5 trillion globally and £46bn in the UK alone.
What’s your business model?
Professionals find positions using the Juggle platform for free. Juggle takes a margin on top of their monthly pay, which is billed to the business, very much like an Airbnb marketplace offering.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
There are a number of challenges:
- Companies tend to cut flexible workers before their permanent staff so that has impacted revenue
- The hiring landscape is currently depressed, and companies are behaving cautiously
However, the pandemic has also moved the conversation forward at an unbelievable rate. We experienced a global work-from-home experiment in March/April and far from reducing productivity, companies awoke to all of the great benefits we know exist with flexible working.
What was the funding process like?
This particular round was primarily from our existing Investors and through the Future Fund. I cannot speak highly enough of both our Investors and The Future Fund. It was smooth and everyone was extremely supportive. Quite rare in a fundraising process!
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
It’s always a momentum issue. As a sole Founder, I need to raise capital as quickly as possible as the business is still too small for me to be away from it for too long, and growth can suffer as a consequence. It’s a real chicken and egg situation which other Founders will deeply understand.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
You can’t underestimate market timing here. Most Investors have been with us for a while so they recognised we’re perhaps coming into an interesting chapter where the market is behind us.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We launched a new platform at the beginning of the year, so we’ll continue to iterate on that, onboarding more fantastic companies who are embracing flexibility, and making sure our brilliant professionals find their flexible careers.
We also plan to launch our professional community which will really shape our roadmap for these users.
Finally, we intend to open an investment round to this community and the crowd in general.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
I hate giving advice! Founders understand their own business far better than I do. All I would say is I’ve been there myself and I know how you feel. If you want to talk something through then DM me on Linkedin and we’ll chat.
I hate giving advice! Founders understand their own business far better than I do. All I would say is I’ve been there myself and I know how you feel. If you want to talk something through then DM me on Linkedin and we’ll chat.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
I’m actually very excited about Juggle right now. The team is superb and the market is buying into the concept of flexible working. We have three and a half years of deep learning in this subject and a really strong base to grow from here.
What is your favorite restaurant in London?
I’m so out of the game here. My go-to which never fails to disappoint, is Randall & Aubin on Brewer Street, Soho.
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