Belfast tech firm Locate a Locum, which helps locum healthcare professionals find flexible work opportunities, has secured £1m in equity funding that will be used to grow the business and create six new jobs.
The company said it uses its “on-demand technology platform to pair thousands of pharmacists around the UK with over 8,000 workplaces in need of staff”. Users can book a shift in their desired place of work in under a minute.
It has already secured business with the UK’s four largest pharmacy chains - Boots, Well, Rowlands and Lloyds. It also successfully launched and sold a bespoke workforce management platform to Superdrug which is used in over 230 branches.
In recent months Locate a Locum has won contracts with Right Medicine Pharmacy and Juno Health to serve more than 40 branches across the UK, creating an immediate need for six additional staff.
The firm’s chief executive Jonathon Clarke said: “Locate a Locum has a close-knit team of 20 today, but we hope to increase our headcount to more than 70 within three years as we extend our reach and expand into new markets. “
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The company says it has more than one thousand pharmacists actively booking shifts through the platform on a weekly basis and it plans to replicate its approach in other healthcare sectors.
Jonathan continued: “Pharmacists who previously spent hours every week searching for their next locum shift now receive daily job alerts from the pharmacies that need them, so they can work where and when they want. More and more people want that flexibility in their working lives and we intend to diversify to serve other healthcare professions in future.”
The firm also stated that the tech platform creates an easy way for pharmacists to keep track of payments they are due to receive.
Locate a Locum received its equity investment from Techstart Ventures, private investors and Co-Fund NI, a European Regional Development Fund managed by Clarendon Fund Managers.
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