New app dubbed the Uber for everyday tasks is expanding to East London

After launching in Nottingham last year, Pinga is coming to London 
Pinga
Amelia Heathman3 July 2018

By now, people have a pretty good grasp of peer-to-peer (P2P) apps. Companies like Deliveroo and Uber have made millions out of ordinary people helping out other people for extra cash.

Now, London is getting a new P2P app, in the form of delivery app Pinga.

Launched last year in Nottingham, the app connects people who want something delivered (taskers) with those available to deliver it (doers).

Say you’ve arrived home to make dinner and you’ve forgotten a necessary ingredient. You tap the ‘What do you need’ button in Pinga and the request is instantly sent to all Pinga users within 1km.

The task is live for 30 minutes but is usually picked up by a tasker within five. Then, you negotiate the price and pay electronically, and the ingredient arrives at your door, taking usually an average of 16 minutes.

The fee is negotiated depending on proximity, time of day and the number of items requested. The average fee has been £3.60 but this is expected to rise in the capital. Pinga insures all payments, and uses the fintech Stripe for all payment processes.

Jack Rubin, the app’s co-founder describes it as the “Uber for everyday tasks”. A former student of Nottingham University, Pinga launched in the East Midlands city as a way to test demand. He’s found that people have been mainly been using the app in the evening for specific ingredient deliveries, but the requests have varied from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

One request was for a long ladder at 3am, as it turns out the Pinga tasker was locked out of his house.

“Our favourite task was when a medical student arrived at the hospital and realised she had forgotten her scrubs,” explains Rubin. “She sent out a Pinga request and in only 18 minutes, another student had driven to her house, picked up the scrubs, and brought them to the hospital.

“That was quite a special moment for us as founders.”

L-R: co-founder Michael Goulden, head of brand Ali Burton and co-founder Jack Rubin
Pinga

But, with all the hype around P2P apps and the sharing economy, whether that’s Airbnb, TaskRabbit or Deliveroo, do we really need another app on our smartphones? For starters, Rubin says Pinga won’t compete with Deliveroo because the app is not focused on takeaway food, as this isn’t practical for the app’s doers.

“Hot food requires a certain amount of infrastructure, such as insulated bags,” explains Rubin. “The idea for Pinga is really to connect you with someone who’s in the ‘right place at the right time’, which is why delivery of items from local retailers works so well.”

You can make your own judgement on Pinga when it arrives in East London later this year. The start-up has raised £240,000 from angel investors including Graham Hobson, co-founder of Photobox, to facilitate its expansion.

“It’s clear that people living in East London are real trend setters who are particularly interested in the advancement of the trust and sharing economy,” says Rubin.

As long as this expansion goes well, there are hopes to bring Pinga to the rest of London and other cities around the world.

“We think people will look back at the time when they couldn’t ask people in their community for help and laugh,” he adds.

Download Pinga on App Store now and an Android version is arriving later this year

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