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MBN USA

January 11, 2022

Capital to expand tech higher education, accelerate Black-owned firm’s growth

By Jasmine Browley, Essence

Millions of US workers have realized they need a career change.

Recent data from the Pew Research Center show 66 percent of Americans who were out of work or underemployed during the pandemic say they have or are seriously considering changing their occupation or field of work to shift into high demand jobs, like tech-based positions.

Career Karma, a company dedicated to helping connect people who are interested in tech jobs find career-changing resources, has recently announced a huge move to help Black and Brown workers make the move.

According to a news release, Career Karma has raised $40 million Series B funding led by San Francisco-based global venture capital firm Top Tier Capital Partners, with existing investors Softbank’s SB Opportunity Fund, Emerson Collective, 4S Bay Partners and new founders Bronze, Stardust,Toursdale Ventures,Taavet + Sten, GV. This brings total funding toto $52 million since its founding in 2018, according to Career Karma. The company also said it will use the capital to expand into higher education and accelerate the growth of the enterprise, in addition to adding several key roles in the company.

“There is currently not one company that dominates the reskilling space,” Ruben Harris, CEO of Career Karma, said in a news release. “Whichever player aggregates demand will become the category leader in the $2.2 trillion post-secondary education market. With over 10 million job openings in the United States and more than 4 million people who have recently quit their jobs, employers are beginning to accept alternative credentials while workers are increasingly choosing these pathways to up skill into roles that are in high demand.”

To date, the company has crossed the eight-figure revenue per year run rate, has over 25,000 job matching training programs per month, website traffic of 3 million monthly organic visitors, and thousands of users in its live audio room community hosted by students, alumni, schools and companies.

Other notable investors include Baron Davis, Larry Ogunjobi, defensive tackle for the Cincinnati Bengals; John Henry, CEO of Loop, and co-founder of Harlem Capital; and Bharat Mediratta, former CTO at Dropbox, and co-founder of AltSchool, among others.