- All Gravy raises seed round of €3.2million
- Danish fintech startup is a people operating system to help restaurants and shops understand, motivate and retain their hourly-paid employees
- Labour shortages and the cost of living crisis force hospitality and retail sectors to seek ways to reduce staff turnover and increase incentives
Copenhagen - Danish fintech startup All Gravy has raised a seed round of €3.2million to help restaurants and shops understand, motivate and retain their hourly-paid employees.
Labour shortages and the cost of living crisis mean employers urgently need ways to reduce staff turnover, increase incentives and support their employees. All Gravy is a people operating system for hourly paid workers in the hospitality and retail sectors.
The fresh capital will be used to expand in the UK, build out the suite of products and accelerate growth in Denmark and Sweden.
The hospitality and retail industries are in the midst of a sustained and severe labour crisis. In the UK no sectors have been hit harder by the tight labour market resulting from the fallout of Brexit and the pandemic, with hospitality facing a 7.9 percent vacancy rate, the highest of any industry, according to the ONS.
At the same time, the cost of living crisis has put added pressure on hourly paid workers facing unpredictable salaries and the uncertainty of shift work. There are as many as 90 million people in Europe who are either hourly paid or gig workers.
The UK market is a natural next step for the All Gravy team, which now numbers more than 20. All Gravy has secured a user base of customers, hired a GM and a UK local team to support sales and product development.
The fintech startup was founded in 2020 by Jonatan Rasmussen, CEO and Kristian Lundager, CTO, in Copenhagen. Previously both worked in consultancy, with startups and large financial institutions in Denmark and the UK.
The company has signed deals with some of the largest hospitality chains in Denmark, including McDonald’s, 7/Eleven and Foodora/Delivery Hero with over 150 restaurants as customers.
The restaurant industry traditionally has a huge turnover of staff, with average annual churn at 75% - a percentage that has been rising since the pandemic. This costs the industry 100s of millions of pounds due to recruitment and selection, training and education, productivity loss and exit costs.
“The All Gravy people operating system works like a workforce optimization tool. It provides a mix of qualitative and quantitative insights, allowing the HR or ops team to make strategic decisions rather than just putting out fires,” said CEO Jonatan Rasmussen.
The people operating system includes an integrated financial wellness app on iOS and Android which helps increase employee motivation, flexibility and retention.
It helps hourly paid employees understand their earnings, plan their savings and even get paid as soon as the shift ends, free of charge. This motivates them to take more shifts and stay with their employer. The suite of tools also includes a “shift marketplace” to help managers fill vacant shifts across multiple locations and to give employees greater choice.
Companies choosing All Gravy are seeing the difference: 20% more shifts taken per employee, 15% increased retention and the increased ability to attract talent with instant access to wages earned.
Jonatan added: “We believe that hourly paid workers have more options than ever over where they work. Restaurants and shops urgently need to retain employees for longer and they need to understand their employees better. Our customers tell us that what’s in the best interest of employees is in the best interest of the employer - everyone can win.
“The leading hospitality and retail companies are looking for the tools that will give them an edge in creating the best work environment - that is what All Gravy provides. Just like in the tech industry where Google, Apple and others set the bar for attracting and retaining staff, now the hospitality chains we speak to want to do the same thing,” said CTO Kristian Lundager.
“Employers in the sector generally lack the tools to understand churn rate, sentiment and support employee engagement. They don’t know when or why people are quitting. That’s one of the things All Gravy analytics solves,” he added.
The seed round was led by Moonfire, Upfin and Founders Nordic Web Ventures and a syndicate of angels including Bradley Horowitz (Global VP Product, Google) and Phil Chambers (CEO, Peakon).
“I was impressed with All Gravy's user-centric way of thinking, and this closeness to their users really shows up in the feel of the product. I'm happy to be investing in a company that is a force for good for a group of people that's often overlooked in the tech world,” said Bradley Horowitz, VP, Product at Google.
Mattias Ljungman, Founding Partner at Moonfire, said: "All Gravy can revolutionise how millions of hourly paid workers operate. With the labour shortages we're seeing in hospitality and retail, attracting, retaining and understanding data on your employees is business critical. We're
excited to be partnering with All Gravy.”
Other angels include Terese Hougaard (Partner, Atomico), Dan Winn (CTO, Deliveroo), Caroline Hjelm (Head of Marketing, Voi) and Dorte Bregnhøj (Global VP & Head of Talent, Bain & Co).
About All Gravy
All Gravy helps businesses understand, motivate and retain their hourly-paid employees in the struggling hospitality and retail sectors. All Gravy is a people operating system, providing qualitative and quantitative insights. It includes a financial wellness app for employees which helps increase motivation, flexibility and retention. All Gravy, founded in Copenhagen, has raised a seed round of €3.2M and is expanding into the UK.
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