Investment from Sozala Media was less than R1m, reveals Peepz’s Nick Holdcroft

Nick Holdcroft says he’s looking to grow his event staffing platform Peepz, following his announcement last month that his startup had landed an investment from marketing, events and promotions company Sozala Media.

Holdcroft would not disclose the amount or stake that Sozala Media had invested and taken in his Johannesburg-based startup, which he launched in December last year. However, when pressed by Ventureburn, he admitted that it was “less than R1-million”.

The investment would allow for further development of his platform, which provides temporary positions such as waiters, models and promoters to events agencies. Sozala Media would also provide hands-on support to the platform’s clients, said Holdcroft.

He said he’d been speaking to Sozala Media for some time before he launched the platform, making it more what he called “an ongoing relationship” with the events company than a negotiation. None the less he said the deal was signed about three months ago, with the money landing in the startup’s account about six weeks ago.

Peepz founder Nick Holdcroft when pressed admitted the investment from Sozala Media was less than R1-million

He added that he’d invested about R200 000 of his own money in the platform, money he’d drawn from cashing in his pension fund after leaving his former employer Distell, where he’d worked as a brand manager.

He said about 1800 candidates had registered on the platform so far, with about 125 agencies (of which 20 or 30, he added were frequent users) having signed up to tap staff, he said.

He described the platform as “kind of like an Uber or Airbnb system” which aims to solve problems such as staff not pitching up on time to events or arriving with the incorrect clothing because they weren’t briefed properly.

To solve this the platform allows potential staffing candidates to engage with events companies to iron out any specific requirements and expectations for their respective jobs.

In addition, the platform uses each candidate’s geolocation to ensure that only those with a certain radius of an event are picked to apply for any positions. Holdcroft said this would help prevent staff arriving late at events because they weren’t able to access transport or because they were stuck in traffic.

Peepz charges events companies a placement fee on any successful hires. This he said is usually about 15% of a candidate’s pay, but discounted rates are offered for high volume transactions.

It’s small beginnings still for Holdcroft, as he’s currently the startup’s only employee and outsources all web development work to a team of three developers in Cape Town.

To grow his platform Holdcroft might now have to invest in some staffing of his own.

Featured image: Waiter at VC4A’s Africa Early Stage Investor Summit 2018 held in Cape Town in November last year (Supplied)