• Wempler, the Georgian marketplace for task delegation, raises USD 330K of Pre-Seed investment from Presto Ventures and business angels
• The startup is essentially a gig economy marketplace wit the additional function of simplifying the choice of the task-doer
• The company will use the funding on AI-focused product development and international expansion in the region

This January, the well-known Czech venture fund Presto Ventures announced another investment in a Georgian startup. This time, the fund led a USD 330K Pre-Seed round of the Tbilisi-based gig economy startup Wempler.

Young Yet Experienced Founding Team

What sets Wempler apart, at least in the Presto Ventures portfolio, is the young age of the co-founders. Aleksandre Tavkhelidze (CEO), Giorgi Javakhidze (COO), and David Berdznishvili (CPO) are recent alumni of the Business and Technology University in Tbilisi. Despite that, they have already worked for such companies as Space International, TBC Bank, and EPAM, as well as several failed startups.

‘The Wempler founders are the youngest founders in Presto’s portfolio, and this only highlights the drive for success that we see in Georgia. They aren’t afraid to iterate to get to the best product and adjust it by region or other circumstances that may come along. Despite their young age, they’re very mature and experienced in what they do,’ Presto Ventures partner and CFA Roman Nováček tells ITKeyMedia.

Mr Tavkhelidze recalls that the original inception of Wempler took place in 2022 as he was diligently tackling his homework in his room. The student had allotted a week for its completion, but he had the ambition to complete it within a mere hour.

‘My concentration was interrupted by a call from my mother, who urgently needed me to procure renovation materials from a local store and deliver them to a worker at a different location. Faced with the challenge of finding someone to assist with this task, I found myself in a quandary. Consequently, I reached out to a friend, with whom I shared my dilemma and contemplated the development of a solution,’ the CEO shares.

Such was the beginning of the journey, marked by the creation of the initial iteration of Wempler – a PowerPoint-designed website. ‘The name Wempler can be dissected as follows: W stands for Workers, EMPL stands for Employers, and ER encompasses both work-ER and Employ-ER roles,’ Mr Tavkhelidze explains.

Gig Marketplace with Facilitated Choice

The service eventually grew into a gig economy marketplace where one can find people or businesses which can take care of all sorts of errands: from grocery shopping, house cleaning or dog walking to such qualified jobs as plumbing or mounting. However, what makes Wempler stand out in this field is how it tackles the challenge of choice overload, created by the gig economy: when a user wants an errand taken care of but has to spend much time choosing from a plethora of offers.

The platform analyzes the request and matches the customer with 3 most suitable offers from the highest-rated local service providers (companies & individuals) within 5 minutes. Then, the customer then selects one of the offers and the task is automatically assigned and processed.

‘Credit for this functionality goes to our Admin panel. Leveraging our extensive database of task-doers, comprising both companies and individuals, the system employs a sophisticated algorithm to generate three offers based on rating and price: the lowest, middle, and highest options. This ensures that customers have a range of choices to consider when registering a task,’ Mr Tavkhelidze explains.

Word of Mouth, International Ambition, and AI Integration

Wempler is available as an app and web-based. It also allows the users to pay and get paid directly through the platform. As of now, over 5,700 registered task-doers have completed over 22,000 tasks for over 10,000 unique customers through Wepler within one year after the launch, and the company boasts about having such growth primarily organic, i.e. through word of mouth.

BTU Tbilisi’s rector Nino Enukidze is proud to acknowledge the success of Wempler as A Georgian-born startup founded by BTU alumni. She is convinced that the platform’s brilliance lies in its simplicity and the empowerment it offers to users.

‘Wempler is elevating the game by fostering a community where service is exchanged not just with efficiency, but with a personal touch, and redefining the way we approach our everyday tasks,’ Professor Enukidze comments.

With the new investment, the startup announces forthcoming product updates focusing on AI, data science, and enhanced customer-centric features. The funding will also allow Wempler to fulfill its potential to the fullest in the Georgian market, as well as expand its footprint internationally and foster a culture of convenience and reliability in more Eastern European countries.