Lynk

Hear the Pitch 

The Problem

In the informal sector, there are few opportunities to reliably match workers with new clients. Informal workers rarely apply for jobs with formal tools like CVs or references. Instead, the vast majority of work is granted through informal connections and sheer chance. This results in low wages, irregular work, and few opportunities for professional growth.

The Solution

Lynk bridges this gap, using the power of social networking tools like LinkedIn to match informal workers to employers.

With Lynk, workers create career identity profiles that display relevant skills, certifications, and employer ratings. To find workers, employers can send out job requests in over 70 categories. Lynk’s system identifies workers with the relevant skills and allows them to bid for the job. Workers can participate via the internet, SMS, or phone, meaning anyone can participate— regardless of their level of connectivity.

Once the job is complete, the system collects feedback from the employer, which goes directly onto the workers’ profiles, helping competent workers get more work and earn higher pay over time.

Market Opportunity

• Every month, in Nairobi alone, households and businesses buy close to $80 million worth of products and services from informal sector workers.
• The informal sector accounts for more than 80 percent of Africa’s labor force.
• Informal workers operate under a high degree of vulnerability, resulting in small and unpredictable incomes, poor working conditions, and low productivity

Organization Highlights

• In the past two years, Lynk has connected informal sector workers in Kenya to over 25,500 completed jobs with 80 percent customer retention, an average of 28 jobs completed per customer, and 17 percent month-over-month growth
• Awards: Global Youth Economic Opportunities Ideathon, Startup Safaris, Save the Children Prize for Breakthrough Innovations for Children
• Media: Devex, Disrupt Africa

Existing Partnerships

Lynk currently partners with cross-sector organizations to promote career growth opportunities in Kenya’s informal economy, such as:

• A marketing partnership with Safaricom, a large mobile network operator with interests in the informal sector
• Property developers in Kenya as a source of business demand
• Vocational training schools as a source of recruiting and onboarding informal workers onto the platform

Organization Goals

Lynk seeks to:

• Expand offerings for informal workers, such as integrating e-learning on loans or credit tools
• Reach over 2,000 jobs per day by 2021: the more jobs Lynk facilitates, the more Lynk can extract insights to further automate and improve processes and reduce costs
• Raise a Series A equity round of $2.5 million to invest heavily into multichannel customer marketing, validate and build additional revenue streams, and build a world-class team

Partnership Goals

To reach the goals mentioned above, Lynk seeks partnerships to:

• Increase fundraising by pitching to investors or grantors
• Grow demand through digital marketing, traditional marketing, and new customer-facing sales lines such as Lynk for Business, which packages Lynk's existing products as a business-to-business offering
• Support research and development to advance technology and processes to automate Lynk’s job management, worker recruitment, and job listings