Shoutt.ai raises £525k pre-seed to surface personalised freelance gigs via AI
This article covers Shoutt.ai, an HRtech startup, which has raised £525,000 in a pre-seed funding round to develop an AI-driven platform that aggregates gig and freelance opportunities into a personalised feed. The funding will be used to deepen the platform's matching intelligence, support existing users and expand its reach across the freelance market to help freelancers find work more efficiently.
Shoutt.ai, an HRtech startup, has raised £525,000 in a pre-seed funding round to develop an AI-driven platform that aggregates gig and freelance opportunities into a personalised feed. The funding will be used to deepen the product’s intelligence, support existing users and expand its reach across the freelance market.
Why it matters
Freelancers routinely spend hours each week hunting for work across job boards, marketplaces and social media. Shoutt.ai cites figures that the average freelancer wastes at least six hours per week and can lose as much as £10,000 a year through missed opportunities and platform fees. Tools that reduce search time and lower friction could directly affect earnings and efficiency for independent workers.
The company’s focus sits at the intersection of HRtech and the gig economy: by automating discovery and surfacing opportunities early, Shoutt.ai aims to give freelancers a timing advantage in competitive markets.
Inside the product
Shoutt.ai runs an always-on AI agent that scans multiple sources across the web, filters results and serves personalised matches to users. The startup says the agent is trained by human experts to improve relevance and speed of alerts, with the intention of delivering higher-quality leads faster than manual searching.
The service operates on a freemium model. Free accounts surface potential matches; freelancers pay to upgrade when they choose to pitch for specific opportunities. The company emphasises a straightforward pricing approach and says there are no hidden fees.
Founded by Saleem Yaqub and Jonathan Eadie, Shoutt.ai plans to use the funding to expand the number of sources it analyses and to enhance the platform’s matching intelligence.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by SFC Capital alongside a group of angel investors. The investors have committed capital to support product development and market growth at the pre-seed stage.
In the announcement, Ed Stevenson, Investor at SFC Capital, said:
We're excited to back Saleem and Jonathan as they tackle a real problem for freelancers. Their AI-driven approach saves gig workers valuable time and money, and we look forward to seeing Shoutt.ai's impact as the freelance market continues to grow.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Saleem Yaqub, Co-founder & CEO at Shoutt.ai, said:
Too many freelance platforms are designed to keep people dependent, distracted, and paying fees just to stay visible. We built Shoutt to flip that dynamic. Our goal is to give freelancers back control over their time, their income, and the work they choose to take on. This funding, which we are delighted to have secured, lets us keep building the infrastructure freelancers actually need to run independent, sustainable businesses on their own terms.
In the announcement, Jonathan Eadie, Co-founder & CTO at Shoutt.ai, said:
Despite the rapid growth of the freelance economy, the infrastructure supporting it has traditionally been fragmented and inefficient. Freelancers are expected to monitor multiple platforms, with different rules, fees, and algorithms, just to stay in the game. Shoutt.ai was built to solve that fragmentation by acting as an intelligent layer across the entire market constantly scanning, filtering, and structuring live opportunities into a single, personalised feed. This investment allows us to deepen the intelligence behind that system, expand the range of sources we analyse, and build for freelancers who want clarity, speed, and autonomy.
The bigger picture
The funding reflects ongoing demand for tools that address inefficiencies in the gig economy. For HRtech startups, product-market fit often depends on reducing time-to-value for end users; in this case, the metric is time saved and missed-revenue avoided. There is also growing interest from HRtech investors in AI-led services that aggregate fragmented labour markets.
As freelance and gig work continue to grow across the UK and Europe, platforms that lower search costs and increase transparency could shift how independent workers find and manage income streams. Shoutt.ai’s pre-seed raise is an early bet on that direction.
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