London-based startup TaskHer has raised £650,000 in seed funding as it looks to expand its platform connecting homeowners and organisations with verified female tradespeople.
The funding round was co-led by Trust for London, Resolution Ventures, Ufi Ventures and Second Century Ventures through the REACH UK programme.
TaskHer plans to use the investment to develop its technology and expand further into the business-to-business market, including partnerships with housing associations, lettings agencies and organisations supporting vulnerable women.
The company currently operates across London and provides customers with access to verified tradeswomen for property maintenance and repair work.
Founded in 2022 by Anna Moynihan and Paul Moynihan, TaskHer emerged from the pair’s own experience managing a home renovation and noticing the limited number of women working on site.
The business has since developed into a marketplace designed to make female tradespeople easier to find while also addressing the wider shortage of skilled workers within the UK trades sector.
Expanding Beyond Homeowners
While TaskHer initially focused on connecting individual homeowners with tradeswomen, its next phase of growth will increasingly target organisations responsible for managing larger property portfolios.
Housing associations, lettings agencies and other property organisations regularly require maintenance and repair services across multiple locations, creating a potentially significant B2B opportunity for the startup.
TaskHer has already begun developing this side of the business.
Earlier this year, the company announced a partnership with domestic abuse charity Refuge to provide trauma-informed maintenance services within safe houses.
The initiative recognises that routine repair visits can present additional concerns for women who have experienced domestic abuse, particularly when unfamiliar contractors need to enter their living environment.
By providing access to female tradespeople who understand those circumstances, TaskHer is attempting to address a specific need while expanding the commercial applications of its platform.
Tackling the Trades Skills Gap
The company also sees its platform as part of a wider effort to increase female participation in skilled trades.
Women currently represent only a small proportion of the UK’s skilled trades workforce, despite persistent shortages of qualified workers across areas such as plumbing, electrical work and property maintenance.
TaskHer argues that increasing the visibility of tradeswomen can help encourage more women to consider careers within the sector while giving existing female tradespeople greater access to customers and commercial opportunities.
Founder Anna Moynihan said the funding would allow the business to expand while supporting more women working in trades.
“For too long, the skilled trades have been seen as a closed shop, but we know that representation is recruitment,” she said.
Moynihan said TaskHer’s goal was not simply to grow a marketplace but to help increase the number of women building sustainable businesses within the skilled trades.
Building a Different Kind of Marketplace
Online marketplaces have transformed the way consumers find everything from taxis to accommodation, and home services have increasingly moved in the same direction.
TaskHer is taking a more specialised approach by focusing on a particular segment of the workforce rather than attempting to compete as a general trades marketplace.
That positioning could prove particularly important as the company expands into institutional customers.
For housing providers and other organisations, selecting contractors can involve considerations beyond cost and availability, including safeguarding, trust and the experience of residents receiving the service.
TaskHer’s partnership with Refuge demonstrates how the platform could differentiate itself in areas where those considerations carry particular weight.
The company will now use its new funding to develop the platform further and increase the number of organisations using the service.
For TaskHer, the next stage will be about proving that a marketplace initially designed around a clear social and workforce problem can also develop into a scalable property services business.
