Staffing app Syft acquires recruitment agency PBL Chefs
Staffing platform Syft has acquired culinary recruitment agency PBL Chefs in a deal that will add 600 chefs to the app.
The exact terms of the transaction have not been disclosed but all of PBL's current team will join Syft as part of the cash plus shares deal.
It is the first acquisition made by Syft, which was founded in 2015 by Jack Beaman and Novo Abakare. To date the pair have raised £8.75m to develop the platform from investors including Creandum, PROfounders Capital, and David Haye, with a further round of funding expected this year.
PBL Chefs managing director Phil Houlihan will become chef director at Syft, heading a department responsible for almost 1000 chefs.
Beaman said: "We have worked with Phil for a year, so we are confident in his skills and the chefs he has working for him. Phil's clients and chefs love him and his team, and we plan to achieve a lot more success together.
"We are planning on investing heavily in chefs this year; our first priority is to ensure all the chefs we have get an increase in pay as well as the 200 perks all our workers at Syft benefit from."
Houlihan added: "We share the same vision for how technology is changing the staffing industry and in particular driving up wages for workers. It was a big decision for me and wasn't something I had considered, but after spending lots of time with Novo and Jack, it felt like the right thing to do."