Odd job marketplace gets $22 million boost

Airtasker co-founders Tim Fung (left) and Jonathan Lui.

Get ready to hear a lot more about Airtasker. The start-up has raised $22 million in a second round of funding led by Seven West Media.

The media giant, which owns TV channels, magazines and interests in Presto and Yahoo!7, secured a 15 per cent stake in Airtasker and will “provide media support and investment to drive the platform’s growth”.

Airtasker is an online marketplace for members of the public to pay other members of the public to perform odd jobs or deliver professional services.

Tasks in the vicinity of the CIO Australia office included “Wall mount my TV” for $50 and “Need the lawns mowed” for $60.

Airtasker said it will use funds - a follow on investment from existing shareholders Shanghai-based Morning Crest Capital, Sydney-based venture capital fund Exto Partners and National Road and Motorists Association (NRMA) - to expand Airtasker’s “world class technology team that will underpin its growing platform”.

In March last year Airtasker hired former Dick Smith CIO Paul Keen as its CTO.

“Whilst we’ve seen rapid organic growth over the past year, we’re only scratching the surface of a multi-billion opportunity - we still have a huge way to grow in Australia alone,” said Airtasker CEO Tim Fung.

Seven West Media’s Chief Digital Officer, Clive Dickens said more than 600,000 transactions of everyday tasks had already been made on Airtasker.

“Airtasker has a highly scalable online platform that simplifies the end-to-end task process and provides a rich and valuable data platform, which is a strong competitive advantage,” said Dickens.