PeoplePerHour operates an online marketplace for buying and selling freelance services, and recently launched an iPhone app and a redesigned website with a new UI. In August it introduced 'Hourlies', a product offering pre-packaged services at fixed prices starting from one hour. The platform combines an RFP-style and supply-driven model and claims to be the only e-lance site with both approaches. Popular categories for Hourlies include design, writing and digital services; examples cited include a custom dog coat in three hours for £25 and a CV written in one hour for £10. Founder and CEO Xenios Thrasyvoulou said the company aims to make buying and selling services as easy and widespread as buying on Amazon or eBay. The company also strengthened its management team with CFO David Engel (formerly FD at Skype and Yahoo! Europe) and Katie Kitiri (formerly Head of Customer Service, Trust & Safety at Gumtree). PeoplePerHour is an online marketplace that connects businesses with freelancers across a range of services, appealing to home-workers and 'moonlighters' as well as traditional freelance sectors. The company launched as a beta in 2007 and had a wider launch in 2008. It claims a community of 40,000 freelancers and publishes real-time data from 51,000 small business users via a site section called The PPH Economy. Platform data shows freelancers in 150 countries, though 80% of jobs go to UK freelancers and 10% to India; Marketing & Sales is the most popular category ahead of IT & Web. About 15% of clients are in emerging economies hiring Western experts, and the company positions itself to benefit from an east-to-west flow of business as those markets develop. Financially, PeoplePerHour had previously raised about £425k from founders and prominent angels and has closed an interim funding round with Index Ventures and existing shareholders for an undisclosed sum reported to be around £500k. PeoplePerHour operates an online marketplace that matches freelance and self‑employed professionals with project work, concentrating on UK small businesses and supplemental-income workers. The site launched in September 2007 and positions itself as a European alternative to US platforms. It claims roughly 30,000 small businesses and freelancers using the service, about 30% repeat usage by new users, and roughly 1 million page views per month. The company highlights a local‑first model—about 85% of awarded projects are local to the buyer—which it argues could be an advantage versus offshore‑focused competitors. Founders Xenios Thrasyvoulou (CEO) and Simos Kitiris (CTO) remain involved. PeoplePerHour has secured angel funding to help build out its vision as a 'European E‑Lance.'

Total raised

$4M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Oct 2012