• Prague-based gig economy startup Adam collects a EUR 3M Late Seed round
• The platform goes beyond matchmaking and takes care of the whole process of getting a gig done
• With the new funding at hand, the startup will expand to new verticals and geographies

This July, Adam – the Czech gig economy platform for home improvement and renovation workers and a portfolio company of the celebrated Presto Ventures (invested in Elin.ai recently) – closed a deal of EUR 3M of Late Seed funding with Brighteye.

The Beginnings and the Problem of ‘First-Generation’ Gig Economy Marketplaces

The two co-founders – Roman Sysel and Jakub Dvořák – met in 2016 while working at Bolt together. They were among the first global team members at Bolt and the first two people in the Prague office. Their experience at Bolt inspired them by serving as proof to a very important idea – that building a globally successful startup from a small European country is possible.

‘Playing an important role in Bolt’s development, we felt confident that we are able to write our own story from the Czech Republic,’ Mr Dvořák recalls.

Eventually, a friend of one of the co-founders got offered a CEO position at a ‘first-generation’ platform for generating the leads for the tradespeople. While both the offer and the platform in question went nowhere, the very instance got the two co-founders-to-be to reflect about such lead-generating platforms and realize their flaws.

‘They don’t provide much value to either side – the end customer and the tradesperson. It’s essentially a database of tradespeople contacts and their ratings for customers and a lead generation platform for the tradespeople. They are not solving any of their problems. Customers still live in uncertainty, need to wait weeks for the tradesperson to be available, have no idea about the cost of the project, etc. The tradespeople, on the other hand, still need to do all their tasks like site visits, dealing customer inquiries, manage schedule changes and travel across the whole city to their customers,’ Mr Dvořák explains the problem.

According to him, even tradespeople who are busy six months ahead reach utilization of roughly 30% meaning they only work 30% of the 100% of the time they’d be willing to allocate to something that actually makes them money, e.g. painting or renovating in our case. As a matter of fact, such a ‘first-generation’ approach makes the utilization of the tradespeople even worse because they need to fight against each other for the lead on top of doing their regular job, i.e. they need to spend even more time per job, which ultimately makes their services more expensive, and the platform is simply not attractive for them to join.

‘The co-founders’ previous Bolt experience helped a lot, but it was also their vision of structuring the team and approaching expansion that is simply right for this kind of business and that we haven’t seen anywhere else. In this type of business, the ability to execute and hire top talent is paramount. Roman and Jakub were the first founders who managed to convince us that they are the right duo to build this venture,’ Presto Ventures’ partner Roman Nováček comments.

What Adam Brings to the Table

Adam provides value to both customers and tradespeople through managing the whole process from placing an inquiry to the finished job and a happy customer. All that tradespeople need to do is to accept the job offer. Adam also takes care of the steady job flow, and tradespeople can avoid any gaps between the jobs, as well as site inspections, customer negotiations, etc., focusing on what they are the best at and what makes them money – the actual craft.

Customers, on the other end, no longer need to wait too long for craftsmen to become available. Adam allocates professionals for the specific job at the specific date. The platform promises that it’s even possible to book a worker at an extremely short notice, e.g. for tomorrow. The price is fixed upfront, too.

Thus, Adam provides up to 3x better utilization, creating a win-win situation where customers pay less while tradespeople earn more at the end of the month because they are able to finish up to 3x more jobs.

‘We also help tradespeople to work with customer feedback and make sure they improve the quality of their service, – and then they can take care of bigger, higher paid and more complex projects. New workers first work with more experienced ones, those with excellent reviews, and learn the best practices. This works both within our two verticals – painting and renovations – as well as between the verticals: painters who want more projects can additionally become renovation workers,’ Mr Dvořák adds.

‘We are excited to support Adam’s mission to modernize a traditional industry which has seen no change for decades. While providing their clients with a hassle-free experience, Adam also facilitates continuous training and professional development for the craftsmen, empowering these professionals to expand their services and improve their competitiveness. This not only benefits the craftsmen but also ensures customers receive high-quality services,’ Brighteye’s founding partner Benoit Wirz states.

Covered and Prospective Milestones

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  Roman Sysel, Co-Founder at Adam

  As mentioned, Adam was started in 2020 and celebrated its first completed job in September that year.

• In Summer 2021, Slovakia became the first country to welcome Adam’s international expansion. Meanwhile, the business in the Czech Republic grew big enough that it made sense for the founders to start working on Adam full-time.
• As soon as early 2022, Adam expanded to the UK.
• In Autumn  2022, the startup closed a EUR 1M round by Presto Ventures and Markus Villig of Bolt.
• 2023 saw Adam’s expansion to 10+ European countries as the company grew to EUR 4M+.
• Renovations became Adam’s second vertical that the company launched in 2024.
• Finally, the newly raised EUR 3M Late Seed round from Brighteye will allow Adam to expand beyond Europe and launch new trades. The company doesn’t share any specifics as of now.

‘Our vision is that one day you will be able to build an entire house through Adam,’ Mr Sysel concludes.