Quinyx, a platform for gig work scheduling and time reporting, today announced that it raised $50 million in funding led by Battery Ventures at a $550 million valuation. The tranche brings the Stockholm, Sweden-based startup’s total capital to more than $89 million, which Quinyx says it’ll put toward hiring as well as product research and development.

In a 2016 Adobe survey, 56% of office workers predicted that everyone will do some gig work in the future. Companies are on board, with a 2018 Korn Ferry report showing that 60% of HR professionals are hiring more contract workers and 42% plan to hire even more in the future. However, challenges abound with contracting, which can offer less predictability than the traditional hiring cycle. For example, gig roles tend to involve limited knowledge transfer, which might in the long run prove more costly than hiring salaried employees.

Quinyx aims to address some of the challenges in gig work by matching workers with hiring employers — and vice versa. CEO Erik Fjellborg founded the company in 2006 while working at McDonald’s, where he saw how difficult it was for managers to sort shifts manually.

Fjellborg built Quinyx’s initial software and piloted it at a McDonald’s restaurant in Örebro, Sweden, after which he expanded the pilot to McDonald’s restaurants in Sweden, Denmark, and the U.K. “Quinyx has experienced colossal growth over the past year,” Fjellborg told VentureBeat via email. “This success reflects the strenuous demand for organizations hiring an hourly workforce to do more with less as a labor shortage puts a squeeze on businesses’ operations.”

Matching workers with shifts

Quinyx — which claims to have millions of users — delivers scheduling, budget forecasting, and shift planning and swapping. Through its Webpunch product, a dashboard for time clocking, employees can record their time worked as an alternative to traditional time clocks.

Quinyx also offers data processing and digital self-monitoring features as well as Forecast, a product designed to help customers anticipate their workforce needs. Other capabilities span demand forecasting, strategic planning, and labor optimization in addition to worker surveys that “give employers the ability to recognize and reward their peers with virtual badges.”

“Accurate and effective forecasting can mean the difference between turning a profit and making a loss. Our technology does the heavy number crunching and will give you the total labor costs per region and location,” Fjellborg said. “[With] Quinyx, you only have to choose your business objectives — our technology does the rest. [Customers can make] automated schedules in minutes and minimize manual changes mid-operations.”

Expanding market

Quinyx, which has over 300 employees and offices across the U.S, U.K , Sweden, Finland, Germany, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, is benefiting from a shift management market that’s anticipated to grow steeply as the pandemic continues. Markets and Markets forecasts that the workforce management segment will grow from $6.0 billion in 2020 to $9.3 billion by 2025.

Quinyx competes with When I Work, Spur, Blue Yonder, and Deputy, among others. But Quinyx has managed to carve out a slice of the expanding market, with over 1,000 customers including Oatly, Sysco, Virgin Atlantic, Palace Entertainment, IHG, Swarovski, and DHL.

“We are excited about the funding which will enable us to accelerate innovation and expansion — supporting our mission to better the lives of millions of hourly workers,” Fjellborg said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is a game-changer for the workforce management industry and businesses at large.”