Handal, a South African startup founded by entrepreneur Riyana Randall, has launched a platform designed to let businesses discover, book, manage and pay creative professionals within a single system. The platform combines talent discovery, project management and payment processing into one environment rather than relying on the separate messaging apps, email threads and invoicing tools businesses have typically used to hire freelance creatives.
Through the platform, businesses can browse a roster of vetted creatives, check real-time availability and rates, and make bookings through an integrated calendar. Once a booking is confirmed, the entire project, from the initial brief to final payment, is managed inside the platform, including communication, work review, revision requests and approval of deliverables.
Randall described the process the platform is meant to replace: "Right now, a business looking for a senior copywriter or art director sends a message on WhatsApp, waits for someone to reply with a name, reaches out over email, negotiates a rate, shares a brief over WeTransfer, tracks feedback through a chain of replies, chases an invoice, and hopes for the best."
She contrasted that with how the platform is structured to work: "Handal replaces that entire behaviour. You see who is available. You book them. You work inside a structured system. There are no proposals, no negotiation threads, no guessing, and no chasing."
Handal operates as a curated platform rather than an open marketplace. Every creative professional goes through a review process before being approved and listed, meaning businesses see a roster of vetted professionals rather than an open pool of applicants who can bid for work directly.
The platform also includes payment protection. Funds are held by Handal and released to the creative professional once the client approves the completed work, a structure intended to give freelancers payment certainty while ensuring clients receive agreed deliverables before funds are released. Randall described what this means for creative professionals using the platform:
"For creatives, the platform offers something that does not currently exist in this market, a professional presence with live availability, a structured workspace where the project runs cleanly from start to finish, and payment held by the platform and released the moment the client approves the work. No more chasing invoices."
Handal is founder-funded and has launched with what Randall describes as a fully operational platform, including payment infrastructure, administrative systems and a vetted creative roster. According to the company, interest from creative professionals during the early onboarding phase has come without any paid marketing or recruitment effort on Handal's part. Randall described the response:
"From the supply side the response has been strong. More than 100 creative professionals applied during the early onboarding phase entirely through organic word of mouth, no paid acquisition, no job listings and no recruitment effort."
Randall said the company's near-term priority is building out the depth of its talent roster across creative disciplines before turning attention to the demand side of the marketplace:
"Demand activation, meaning actively bringing client businesses onto the platform to make bookings, has not formally started yet." She added that the company is working toward a specific threshold before doing so: "When a client arrives on Handal there needs to be enough range and availability across disciplines for the search to be genuinely useful. That is the threshold being built toward before the demand side opens."
