Shyft

Shyft is a Seattle-founded technology company that began as Shyft Technologies, a mobile application letting shift workers in retail and service industries communicate with one another and trade or cover shifts directly with colleagues at their location, replacing ad hoc coordination by text message, phone lists and social media groups. Early users were registered employees of large chains, and the company disclosed Gap Inc. (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta) as a customer. Shyft was a member of the 2016 Seattle Techstars class.

The company subsequently operated as a fintech serving the global moving industry, supplying digital infrastructure and supply-chain solutions across that sector: connecting customers with moving companies, providing pricing transparency, and embedding financial solutions for both movers and suppliers. Shyft has described the U.S. moving market as worth $86 billion annually and has stated it targets expansion into major global markets through partnerships and agreements with relocation management companies, real-estate firms and association organizations.

Founding story

Shyft Technologies was founded by Brett Patrontasch (co-founder and CEO), Daniel Chen (CTO), Kyle Liu (VP of Product Development) and Chris Pitchford (VP of Workforce Solutions). The company participated in the 2016 Seattle Techstars accelerator class, and was described as three years old at the time of its 2018 Series A.

Business model

Shyft supplies digital infrastructure and supply-chain solutions to the moving industry, connecting consumers with moving companies, providing price transparency, and integrating financial products for both movers and their suppliers. Its earlier product was a mobile workforce application used by retail and service employers to let associates swap and cover shifts.

Traction

As of September 2022 the company reported having facilitated more than 300,000 moves with over 800 moving companies and more than 220 companies. In its earlier workforce app phase, it reported more than 26,000 hours of work swapped through the app and registered users including over 12,000 Starbucks baristas, 7,500 McDonald's workers and 3,500 Old Navy employees, with user base growth of 400% over three months.

Latest developments

In September 2022 Shyft closed a $16 million Series B financing including Munich Re Ventures, OurCrowd, Inovia Capital and Blumberg Capital, and named Randal Meske, previously with IBM, Lotus, IHS Markit and Oracle, as chief executive officer, with capital earmarked for expansion into major global markets.