Kenyan online recruitment marketplace Kuhustle has added a shortlisting functionality to allow users to better manage applications for projects, responding to impressive early-year growth.
Disrupt Africa reported late last year on Kuhustle, which allows skilled young people to bid for jobs posted by companies and claims to be adapting the Freelancer and Upwork model for the African market.
Launched in October 2014, the startup was borne out of the perceived need for a reliable local platform on which developers could showcase their portfolios, and offer their services to SMEs. The marketplace connects young Kenyans with organisations looking to hire professional and affordable service providers on a project basis.
The platform saw 232 per cent growth in January this year alone, and has now added a shortlisting functionality to prevent users becoming overwhelmed by individuals applying for positions.
“Imagine you want someone to design a logo, write a marketing piece, accounting, data entry or a new website to relaunch your business in 2016, you sign up on Kuhustle and post the job with a description of what you need and budget, and within minutes you get 20 professionals bidding for your work, within an hour there are 50, before the end of the day there are over 100. Now you have a new problem, to go through 100 bids and pick the best person for your work,” Kuhustle said.
“This can be overwhelming. While it shows how effective it is to outsource from Kuhustle it also brings a whole new problem into perspective: how do customers find the best person out of the 100 to deliver that design? Kuhustle decided to solve this problem by adding a shortlist button. You will be able to go through the bids as they come in and shortlist, but if you don’t have time, they also help you with the shortlisting based on your needs.”
Kuhustle chief operations officer (COO) Beverly Mbeke previously told Disrupt Africa the startup’s model seeks to improve access to digital jobs by providing a consistent and sustainable pipeline while simultaneously helping organisations manage their human capital costs.
“Kuhustle was started following the constant enquiries that we received to refer developers and designers to private and government institutions that needed technology services, Mbeke said.
“Referrals were difficult because of lack of access to proof of prior work, and we could not guarantee the quality of the ones we found.”
Funded by the Cheetah Fund and the Nailab incubator, Kuhustle is based in Kenya yet has attracted developers and clients from Nigeria and Uganda.
