Mercu raises $1.6m, aims to transform the ‘deskless’ workforce

Mercu co-founders Elliott Gibb (left) and Jascha Zittel / Photo credit: Mercu

The deskless workforce contributes about 80% of global staff. These include fast food workers, retail staff, and warehouse workers, among others. However, most tech platforms don’t specifically cater to these staff.

Singapore-based Mercu is hoping to fill the gap. The startup enables employers to onboard, upskill, and engage with their deskless teams through chat apps.

The idea was born when co-founder Jascha Zittel, a former Grab product manager, was struggling to find effective tools to communicate with millions of drivers across eight countries.

Mercu has bagged a seed round from well-known investors such as 500 Global, Sequoia Capital India, and XA Network to scale its tech solution.

Funding details

• Funding amount: $1,600,000
• Other investors: 500 Global, TEN13, Flying Fox Ventures, Archangel Ventures, XA Network, Sequoia Capital India
• Stage: Seed
• Source

Elliott Gibb, co-founder of Mercu, stresses that the company doesn’t consider Slack one of its competitors.

“Slack, designed for office-based workers, presents challenges for deskless teams, including the need for a separate app, email-based login which many deskless workers don’t have,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Mercu integrates with more mainstream apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, Messenger, and Line, reducing friction and cutting the need for multiple accounts. This approach leads to about 4x to 5x higher engagement and completion rates compared to emails or standalone apps, according to Gibbs.

Mercu considers “messy” WhatsApp groups, Google forms and sheets, Airtable, or Monday.com as some of its competitors.

The startup is already working with companies in Australia, Singapore, and the US. The seed funding will be mostly used to expand in North America and strengthen its business in Southeast Asia and Australia.

See also: True Global Ventures pivots fund to focus on generative AI

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