Pioneering People connects verified flexible workers with businesses who’ll pay them fairly and on the same day as the job.
See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index.
Founder: Rita Kastrati
Year founded: 2022
Website: pioneering-people.com
When the world shut down in 2020, Rita Kastrati started volunteering at the North Kensington Community Kitchen. She was in her final year at university and could commit 50 hours a week to deliver meals to people who were shielding and couldn’t leave their homes.
At first, it was just about dropping off food, but Kastrati quickly realised people needed conversation too – and the lack of fair, flexible work kept coming up. Many of the people she met were in and out of employment, or struggling with health conditions that meant they couldn’t commit to fixed schedules.
She never forgot about those chats, and two years later, Kastrati founded Pioneering People. It’s a platform that supports flexible workers, connecting them with businesses that pay on the same day and offer good wages, transparent conditions, and respect for the work they do. The startup guarantees that workers won’t pay any fees, and that they’ll be paid a minimum rate of £14 per hour.
The platform handles everything from instant ID verification and right-to-work checks to same-day payments, and facilitates direct messaging between workers and businesses.
Kastrati tells us that the biggest challenge in creating Pioneering People was bringing so many essential features under one roof and making them work seamlessly together. She overcame this by building carefully, testing constantly, and refining every detail until the platform felt simple and reliable.
Pioneering People is backed by a group of angel investors whose experience spans across recruitment, technology, and retail. The platform has also established partnerships with innovative, fast-growing brands such as Thursday, Jumpstart, Pan ‘n’ Ice, Mixtons, and others who require instant access to high-quality but temporary staff.
Looking to the future, Kastrati’s goal is for Pioneering People to become the go-to platform for gig work, reshaping the industry by ensuring businesses have instant access to reliable workers, and that workers have fair opportunities and easy access to their earnings.
View the full Startups 100 Index for 2026
1. Omnea
2. HIVED
3. MAGIC AI
4. OXCCU
5. Lightyear
6. Neuranics
7. Hormona
8. Burbank
9. Better Dairy
10. Lenkie Technologies
11. Userled
12. Hoxton Farms
13. Rensair
14. PulpaTronics
15. TradeKart
16. 32Co
17. Carmoola
18. cheqd
19. Currence
20. Adamo Foods
21. Bold Bean Co
22. Beams Renovation
23. Pan Galactic
24. Capi Money
25. Spotted Zebra
26. ANTHROTEK
27. Unravel
28. Perci Health
29. Untap Health
30. Hair Syrup
31. Connect Earth
32. spacebands
33. Unfabled
34. Lightning Reach
35. STOCKED
36. Embeddable
37. XR Therapeutics
38. Literal Labs
39. Scooch
40. Openr
41. Fibe Limited
42. Inicio AI
43. Peachies
44. Better Nature
45. Ctrl Alt
46. Resting Reef
47. Nila
48. ROXFIT
49. Finmile
50. NavLive
51. Volunteero
52. Inntelo AI
53. Zonova
54. A&B Smart Materials
55. Ethicronics
56. Treeapp
57. kennek
58. Soil Benchmark
59. Vox Aeris
60. Asan Cup
61. Nuuri
62. Mindstone
63. MYNDUP
64. Enbiosis Biotechnology
65. JUX Food
66. Danu Robotics
67. Wylde Market
68. Air Aware Labs
69. Mimicrete Ltd
70. ALYVE
71. Happl
72. Living Things
73. Grub Club Pets
74. Mealia
75. PetProov
76. Lylo Products
77. Chest
78. ZIM Connections
79. Uptime Labs
80. Teal
81. Zero Fintech
82. Micro Thermal Energy
83. Kanjo
84. Merlin Cloud
85. My Skin Feels
86. Eleria
87. Cashblack
88. RevvedUp
89. Cosysense
90. SuperFi
91. Loom
92. Legacy Compass
93. Meshed
94. SWURF
95. Main Squeeze
96. Sampl Technologies
97. Over the Moo
98. Pioneering People
99. Bikebook
100. Recondition
