NORTHERN hospitality tech startup, GigPig, has secured a seven-figure, pre-seed
investment as it launches its new gig booking and management platform.

The investment will be used to build a sales and customer service team, enabling GigPig to
expand its reach and effectively service both its business clients and musicians.

Launched in this year, GigPig enables hospitality venues to book musicians directly,
removing third party involvement and plugging into the venue’s operations, finance and
marketing departments. Currently the startup is working with the likes of Mission Mars, Arc
Inspirations, Crazy Pedros, STACK, Apartment Group, NQ64 and Ramona.

Alongside its ease of use for venues, musicians are able to manage their own live dates
through the use of integrated calendar systems and automatic accountancy tools to handle
invoicing and payment.

Founded by four entrepreneurs, Michael Forster, Andrew Garner, Kit Muir-Rogers and Ed
Francis, GigPig was born from a combined passion for music and hospitality. The online
platform has been developed with both musicians and venues in mind, creating a portal that
increases opportunities for both parties.

Michael Forster, co-founder and CEO of GigPig, began his career in the music industry over
30 years ago, founding AMV Live Music with Andrew Garner, co-founder and COO of
GigPig, in 2010. Today, AMV Live Music books musicians into over 6,500 gigs per year.

Commenting on the new venture, Michael said: “The idea of GigPig came around when one
of our large multi-venue clients enquired about bringing their bookings in-house and
essentially licensed our existing bespoke booking platform. We were hesitant at first, but we
soon began to see an opportunity of removing a booking agent as a third party and allowing
venues to directly book musicians.
“We had a conversation with our fellow co-founder and CSO, Kit Muir-Rogers, who has
extensive experience in the hospitality industry and could see the increased need for
entertainment bookings in venues following the pandemic. We connected with Ed Francis, co-founder and CTO, who we’ve worked with on our existing AMV platform and the four of
us brought GigPig to life.”

The 2020 global pandemic brought severe financial losses for the hospitality and
entertainment industries, creating an impact that is still being seen to date. GigPig’s aim is to
support both sectors, empowering musicians to manage their own calendars, bookings and
invoicing, whilst allowing venues of all sizes to find suitable artists to entertain customers.

Kit Muir-Rogers added: “The hospitality & entertainment sectors are industries we know and
love deeply, they are where our roots lie as a business.These sectors have faced their most
challenging trading period ever and are still navigating strong headwinds in a highly testing
landscape. Operators are looking to streamline processes within their business that allow
them to scale and grow, with emphasis on time and money spent.

“We’re seeing a dramatic rise in venues looking at events such as live music to increase
guest footfall, encourage dwell time and heighten guest experience. We want to simplify and
support the return to trade by demystifying this process for our users, by challenging the way
entertainment is booked in the on-trade throughout the UK. I’m incredibly proud to support
artists in finding increased opportunities in their area and encouraging them to have full
autonomy in the way they are booked for gigs.”

Michael continued: “Music is an integral part of a venue’s offering, but there is a third party
outlay that is unnecessary. With the adaptation of technology and industry experience we
believe that the future is giving the venues the power to access the artist market and book
their own gigs.

“We were disruptors back in the day with AMV and with this investment we can build a highly
effective sales and customer service team to do that again with GigPig.”

GigPig is a management and booking platform that connects hospitality venues with
musicians across the UK. For more information visit www.gigpig.uk or contact Kit Muir-
Rogers on [email protected]

ENDS

Notes to editors

GigPig appeals to all areas of a venue’s offering from operations to finance to marketing. It
allows operations teams to view musician and DJ profiles, watch videos and listen to
recordings to ensure the right fit for any chosen gig.

Working with an increasing number of venue embedded marketing partners, GigPig helps
drive footfall to venues by targeted communications across multiple platforms using data
from all sources. The GigPig API can also be added to the venue’s website and once an
artist has been booked, the venue’s “What’s on” page on their website will be updated in real
time.

Centralised invoicing and accounting platform integration will make the disconnect from Ops
to finance a thing of the past.