Creative freelancer platform Twine bags £400,000 seed investment

Twine, a marketplace for creative freelancers recently featured in Tech Pitch, has raised £400,000 in funding from a group of angel investors including Chris Mairs, Jeremy Silver and Stephen Pankhurst, alongside the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Launched in 2013 by Stuart Logan and Damien Shiells – who previously founded Amnis Technology – Manchester-based Twine connects companies to a network of more than 195,000 creative freelancers working across graphic design, animation, music and film from 179 countries.

Small and medium businesses can use the platform to write a project brief and secure talent to create quality audio-visual content including logos, pitch deck design and explainer videos. Freelancers can build a portfolio in Twine, find paid work and connect with other creatives from across the globe.

Following a £350,000 raise at the end of 2015, this funding brings Twine’s total investment to £900,000 and will be used to fuel its continued growth.

Logan commented: “The potential market for Twine is huge. There are 52 million small and medium sized companies in Europe and the US. They spend £24,000 per year on marketing, 32% of which is spent on content marketing. This means around £400 billion is spent on content marketing per year. We want to help companies create the content they need.”

Chris Mairs CBE, venture partner at Entrepreneur First, said “Network marketplaces such as Twine are tricky to get right but can deliver substantial enduring revenues. Logan has demonstrated great insights into how to build the brand and the network.”