A Newcastle specialist recruitment firm has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £80,000 as part of ambitious growth plans.
Hitmarker is focused on recruiting workers for the competitive video games industry, known as esports, and firmly believes there is a gap in the market to become a one-stop-shop for jobs listing for the industry.
The company, which is based in Charlotte Square in Newcastle, is hoping to raise the money to allow it to grow and increase its market share.
And it has already raised £34,970 through a closed investment round with friends and family of the business, but is now opening up the campaign to allow anyone to own shares in the company.
The minimum amount the company is hoping to raise is £80,000 for 4% equity. However, the company is hoping the campaign, which is taking place on Crowdcube, will overfund and that it can actually raise £200,000.
Explaining why the business has designed to raise money through crowdfunding, managing director Richard Huggan said: “We had always had it in our mins as an option. The benefits are that it allows people we have [worked with] to get in at a low level and they can feel like they are part of something.”
He added: “The top and bottom is we could probably tick along as we are now but there is a serious opportunity in esports and gaming to become the jobs site for jobs listings.”
Since the company launched in 2017 it has attracted 450,000 unique users to its website and has been used to search for jobs or staff almost 1.3 million times.
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The investment will allow Hitmarker to double its workforce from five to 10. It will also allow the firm to improve its site for companies looking to hire on the platform, as well as engage in a more aggressive marketing strategy.
Mr Huggan said: “Job listings are spread across various endemic and non-endemic websites and are still very prominent on social media. There is a great need for one centralised location that candidates can use to safely apply for jobs and companies can rely on to hire exceptional staff.”
“We believe that this is the perfect time for us to crowdfund to realise this vision.
“We’ve been profitable for the past three months, already dominate the esports market, a fast-growing subsection of the wider video game industry, and firmly believe we can extrapolate our successful approach to become the gateway into this enormous industry for candidates and companies all over the globe. Video games are the largest entertainment vertical in the world and the opportunity in front of us is huge.”
He added: “It’s been a long time coming and now we just can’t wait to complete this raise, build our team and get down to work. There are so many features we want to release and so much we have planned content-wise to improve our existing offering to the esports industry and build a similarly impassioned community in the video game industry.”
Those interested in investing in Hitmarker can do so .