Customer story
How Zing found the capital to grow Toronto's hospitality staffing platform
Zing matches Toronto restaurants with vetted hospitality workers, shift by shift. Spark Finance found it the capital to keep building and grow its network.
- Company
- Zing
- What it does
- Restaurant staffing, shift by shift
- Based in
- Toronto, since 2019
The story
Zing started on a restaurant floor, on a busy night with too few people to run it. It launched in Toronto in 2019 with three restaurants and a simple idea: assess hospitality workers properly, let both sides review each other, and match restaurants with people who actually want to work there.
Then COVID closed the dining rooms, and the more than 75 restaurants Zing had signed went with them. Zing came through on a small group of loyal partners, with a platform to rebuild and a network to grow again.
Spark Finance took Zing's application to the Canadian lenders most likely to fund it and found the capital for that next stage. Today Zing has completed more than 15,000 shifts across its network of Toronto restaurants.
What Zing does
Vetted hospitality workers for the shifts a restaurant can't fill, without an agency markup.
No hidden fees and no agency markup. Pricing on request.
Post a shift with Zing →Real assessment, not just a resume
Every worker is assessed on skill, grooming, communication, motivation, adaptability and warmth.
Reviews both ways
After each shift the restaurant rates the worker and the worker rates the restaurant, so matches get better.
Shared talent
Restaurants with similar standards share a pool of workers who already know how a good floor runs.
A path to full-time
See someone work your floor first, then bring them on for good.
Six ways restaurants put capital to work
Zing fills the shifts. These are the investments restaurant owners most often finance to get more from every service, and the kind of financing each one usually fits.
- 01
Upgrade the kitchen
A combi oven, a bigger walk-in or a faster dish machine, financed against the equipment and paid for by what it saves.
Fits: Equipment financing → - 02
Add a patio
Extra covers for the warm months often pay back a patio build within a season or two.
Fits: Term loan → - 03
Get through the slow months
A line of credit covers payroll and suppliers between the busy seasons, and costs nothing while it sits unused.
Fits: Line of credit → - 04
Staff up before the rush
Hire and train ahead of patio season and the holidays, so service holds when the room fills.
Fits: Line of credit → - 05
Modernise the front of house
Handheld ordering and a better POS turn tables faster and cut mistakes between the floor and the pass.
Fits: Equipment financing → - 06
Open a second location
The fit-out, the deposit and the opening weeks, financed over the years the new room earns.
Fits: Term loan →
Lenders look at revenue history and how steady your deposits are. Financing works best behind an investment that adds covers, cuts costs or keeps good people.
How it worked
- 1Set the planKnow what the money is for, and how it pays back.
- 2Apply with Spark FinanceOne application, taken to the Canadian lenders most likely to fund a business like Zing.
- 3Put it to workThe capital went into growing Zing.
- 4GrowMore than 15,000 shifts completed across Zing's Toronto network.
The people behind Zing
Serkan
Founder and Product Lead
More than 15 years in hospitality, including time at Four Seasons.
Rick
Co-Founder and CTO
Builds the technology behind Zing's matching.
Short a server on Saturday? Post a shift with Zing.
Fund what comes next
One application to the Canadian lenders most likely to fund an incorporated business like yours, from a growing platform to a busy restaurant. Applying is free, and you can stop at any time.
Spark Finance is a brokerage, not a lender. Financing comes from independent lenders, and every offer is subject to their approval and terms. Zing provides hospitality staffing and is not a lender. Shifts and staffing are arranged by Zing under its own terms. The ideas above are general information, not advice about a particular business or property. Read Spark's privacy policy and terms.