Canadian-Fronted Hyr Raises $1.3 Million Seed Round

Hyr has announced it has raised a $1.3 million USD seed round.

The New York City company, founded by Canadian Erika Mozes, saw the funding led by Flybridge Capital Partners with participation from Newark Venture Partners and XFactor Ventures.

The new capital brings Hyr’s total raised financing to $2.4 million USD. The new financing will be used to scale Hyr into new markets and verticals while also growing across the U.S. and Canada.

Hyr is a startup that helps match shift workers to businesses when they need to pick up a few extra shifts on the go. The platform is a solution for both workers and businesses; employees get the chance to make a bit of extra cash when they are not busy, and companies can pick up workers when they really need the extra bodies.

Mozes shared a blog post describing her journey around founding and growing Hyr.

“We also played upon a growing restlessness among a younger generation, who value time over money and value experiences over things,” she writes. “The Bucket List Generation was exactly our target—being defined by what you’re working for, not where you work.”

“The gig economy was looking for the ‘Uber’ of the labor market and Hyr was the answer.”

In New York and Toronto, there are over 600 million shifts scheduled each year in the hospitality and retail industries. More than six million of those go unfilled because the businesses are unable to find willing and able workers.

Since founding in 2017, Hyr has seen more than 10,000 workers on-boarded to the platform, accessing more than 200 businesses. This includes some of the largest hospitality chains in Canada like Carlsburg, SirCorp and Hero Certified Burgers.

“Information and office workers have had the chance, over the last 10 years, to benefit from more flexible work environments and more meaningful work and now the shift economy can tap into that same opportunity,” writes Jesse Middleton, a venture capitalist at Flybridge. “I imagine a world, not too far off, where a simple tap of a button on your phone can take you to new places all over the world with a room from Airbnb, a car from Uber and a job from Hyr when you land.”

Hyr is a company that is coming at the right time, as a recent study by Intuit Canada shows that Generation Z is beginning to embrace their side hustle and look for ways to grow and earn money beyond a typical 9-5.