The startup is on a mission to help businesses achieve higher returns from their marketing budgets by taking a more agile and data-driven approach to finding and managing talent.

Traktion is part of a new breed of specialist ‘deep' talent platforms* that focus on specific verticals, in this case, the $500bn digital marketing services industry.

The Traktion platform has three key features: It identifies what marketing talent businesses need, it then matches them to the right freelance on-demand talent, and finally provides the tools and services to help them manage and optimise the relationship. 

Data is a key component of the Traktion proposition. Traktion uses performance data (both talent and marketing) to optimise every decision. The platform comprises a proprietary 100 point system for verifying and onboarding every marketer. It uses marketing performance data to identify where the growth opportunities are for each business. Its matching algorithm selects the right talent for each business and brief. And it monitors active marketing and talent performance to ensure both businesses and talent are growing as fast and efficiently as possible. 

Traktion has so far attracted over 200 marketers onto its platform (pre-launch) and is already working with over 30 start-ups and scale-up businesses including Myndup and Liminal Health.

The founding team at Traktion comprises accomplished leaders in marketing, marketplaces, and data: Saher Shodhan (ex Uber India) Stefan Bardega (ex CEO iProspect UK) Jaron Soh (marketplace expert) Luis Munoz VIllareal (ex Live Well).

Nigel said: "Traktion brings together the right team, with the right product at the right time to meet a critical need in the market. Marketing was already a very significant pain point in the new economy and this has been amplified by COVID. Traktion's data-driven, outcome focused, deep marketplace approach, is designed to unlock much more efficient and agile marketing-led growth for businesses. Traktion has timed the arrival into the market perfectly to capitalise on a number of post-COVID marketing trends."

1. The growing need, by businesses of all sizes, for hyper-specialised expert digital marketing talent 
2. Disaffection with the high cost and one dimensional performance of marketing for the new economy sector
3. The growing demand for agile and flexible marketing teams.

Stefan said: "We believe there is a better way to do marketing than the current models. We have a fundamental belief that the future of marketing will be more agile, flexible, data-driven; and that this will deliver superior marketing-led growth to all businesses. In addition, it is our perspective that talent is increasingly demanding a more agile project based approach to work. So we are not only able to deliver superior growth for businesses but also superior growth and opportunities for talent too."