CASE STUDY
Hireup
Size: $2.5 million
Hireup harnesses the power of technology to revolutionise the way Australians with disability find, hire and manage their own support workers. It does this by building a network of support workers and people with disability looking for support. People are able to search, message and book each other through the platform. For people with disability and their families, Hireup allows users to manage their own relationships with support workers with Hireup taking care of the necessary tax and super payments, insurance, payroll and workplace health and safety requirements. Hireup ran a minimum viable product in late 2014 and early 2015. After proving the need and applicability of the model, Hireup then raised $2.5 million via an impact investment in late 2015. As a two-sided marketplace, the funds raised are helping Hireup to scale quickly and in lockstep with the national rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). THE INITIATIVE Purpose of capital
To scale the Hireup business quickly and in lockstep with the rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Sector
Disability and community services
Geography
Australia
Scale of impact
There are 460,000 people with disability across Australia eligible for the NDIS, a scheme that is directed towards those with the highest support needs in Australia. As an online platform, Hireup is national in scope but local in application. As a result, the online platform allows anyone within Australia to efficiently and cost-effectively manage the engagement with their support workers.
Timeline
Hireup launched in January 2015 after six months of pilot testing and consultation. The business is now fully operational and intends to scale its impact around Australia. Beyond
that, once the model has been proven, there may be scope and demand for use of the business model and technology across other sectors (eg aged care) and internationally. THE INVESTMENT Investors
Private investors, Trusts and Foundations including The Myer Foundation, The William Buckland Foundation, CAGES Foundation, the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and the Scalzo Family Office.
Investee
HireUp Holdings Pty Ltd
Investment Private equity - $2.5m structure and terms Arranger/Lead
Impact Generation Partners
Source of deal
In May 2015, Hireup received a grant from the Impact Investment Readiness Fund (seeded by National Australia Bank). This allowed Hireup to contract the services of Impact Generation Partners and other third party service providers. With the help of Impact Generation Partners, Hireup raised $2.5 million in late 2015.
THE IMPACT
Social, cultural or environmental impact
Hireup is disrupting the traditional “bricks and mortar” employment agency model which currently pervades the disability support system in Australia, under which people with disability pay a premium to have an agency source and select support workers for them. In addition to reducing the funds the individual has available for direct care services, the traditional agency model also reduces the extent to which people with disability can independently choose their own supports and manage their own lives. Given that, under the NDIS, the sector is currently transitioning to individualised funding, whereby people with disability are given management of their own funding packages, the opportunity for people to find and manage their own support worker relationship is becoming a reality. The model promotes choice and control for people with disability. In a recent survey, over 80% of a sample of users said Hireup enables them to make choices and decisions about their own life. 100% of respondents said that Hireup’s services and support helps them meet their individual needs. As a national online platform, Hireup is designed to work at scale, meaning that the cost of items such as insurance premiums and Hireup’s administrative services are spread over a large number of people, thereby keeping costs low for the individual. People with disability on the Hireup platform access immediate cost savings of between $5 and $25 per hour compared to traditional “bricks and mortar” agency models. These savings are used by people with disability to afford more hours of support. By using Hireup, the benchmark average annualised NDIS funding package is able to afford approximately 160 more hours of support in a year by comparison to traditional agency models.
Financial impact
For Hireup investors – financial impact is undisclosed, however Hireup expects its investors will receive at least risk adjusted market based returns.
Future opportunities
Hireup intends to prove its business model and technology platform within the disability sector over the coming years to achieve maximum impact. Using a community based approach, Hireup is building a significant user base of dedicated users who are empowered to contribute to the growth and improvement of the platform. Beyond that, Hireup sees significant opportunities for the use of its model and its technology to generate greater positive impact, both across sectors (into aged care, for example) and for markets internationally.
MORE INFORMATION www.hireup.com.au
