The way hospitality venues book music has been done manually for far too long. Venues and artists alike suffer from a lack of choice, a fragmented ecosystem, and intermediaries taking a ridiculously high skim. End customers are 78% more likely to visit a venue with music on, 76% more likely to buy more drinks, and 73% more likely to stay longer. The business case for live music is therefore clear!
The biggest challenge for venues putting on live music is access to talent and a time-efficient platform that supports automation of communication, billing, accounting, and marketing. Manchester-based GigPig is here to solve this problem.
Secures £1.3M funding
GigPig, a live music marketplace has secured £1.3 million in a seed funding round led by Haatch Ventures, which invested in Thingtrax and Made With Intent) and Notion Capital. Other investors in the seed round include Chris Tottman of Notion Capital and Mark Bennett of Haatch. Angel investors and music industry experts Chris Meehan, Richard Flint, Wolfgang Alistat, and Andrea Mihalovits are among a syndicate of individuals who backed the company.
The latest investment will be used to create thousands of new gigging opportunities in towns and cities across the UK, helping more pubs and bars boost their revenues with live music and giving artists more ways to earn a good living gigging.
Live music marketplace
Michael Forster, Andrew Garner, Kit Muir-Rogers, and Ed Francis in 2022, GigPig is a go-to live music platform for venues, artists, and UK cities. It is a live music marketplace providing venues of all sizes with a streamlined way to search, book, and manage entertainment in-house, while offering artists a free platform to find, play, and get paid for gigs.
It is one of the fastest-growing live music marketplaces in the UK and currently operates in more than 22 cities across the country. Over 600 bars, pubs, and clubs have signed up, booking more than 31,000 gigs so far. This includes national chains such as BrewDog, Albert Schloss, Arc Inspirations, NQ64, Stack, and East Coast Concepts.
While more than 6,000 artists are using the platform to get gigs, earning a collective £8m since the live music marketplace launched.
Michael Forster, CEO of GigPig, said: “With the hospitality sector facing unprecedented challenges, we believe our mission to help every pub and bar maximise their potential with live music is more important than ever. Our platform has already helped hundreds of venues improve customer satisfaction, drive footfall, and increase sales while giving thousands of artists an easier way to earn money gigging. We’re just getting started and the investment announced today will help bring the benefits of live music to more communities in towns and cities across the UK.”
Chris Tottman, Partner, Notion Capital, said: “When we met Michael and Kit we were deeply inspired by GigPig’s mission, rooted in their combined 30+ year industry experience of the grassroots and mainstream live music industries. We are invested in their vision to build an entirely new category that gives hospitality venues access to thousands of artists, with the ability to discover and book local talent at their fingertips. Not only does this give every pub or bar the opportunity to become a stage, but importantly it means artists will get more gigs, with faster and more reliable payments. In many ways, I believe GigPig is fuelling a cultural movement, where for the first time in history venues and artists can connect at scale on a single digital platform. With millions of potential customers globally as the network scales, this was an incredibly compelling investment opportunity to fuel the next period of growth in the UK and internationally.”
Mark Bennett, Partner, Haatch, added: “GigPig is one of the most exciting start-ups in the UK right now, having developed a platform that connects venues and artists at unparalleled scale. While gigging in pubs and bars has long been the bedrock of the UK music scene, GigPig’s technology and industry expertise is set to drive the explosive growth of live music in the hospitality sector. This will not only help give thousands of venues a proven way to increase sales, but importantly provide artists with a platform to launch their careers and earn money doing what they love most. Haatch is proud to support their mission as GigPig turns up the volume across the country.”
