Diversity Recruiting Platform Jopwell Raises $3.25M Seed Round From Magic Johnson, Andreessen Horowitz And Others

Jopwell, the Y-Combinator-backed diversity and hiring recruiting platform dedicated to helping blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans get jobs in tech, has raised a $3.25 million seed round from Magic Johnson Enterprises, Andreessen Horowitz, Kapor Capital, Omidyar Network, Valar Ventures and others to scale its operations and product capabilities. This round brings its total funding to more than $4.22 million.

“For over 30 years, I’ve helped major corporations with their diversity challenges,” Magic Johnson of Magic Johnson Enterprises said in a statement. “Investing in Jopwell fits into my mission to support, empower and strengthen underserved communities. Jopwell optimizes the search and hiring process. It gives people the tools they need to become successful. When you look at the portfolio, the investment was a no-brainer. We’re excited to help Porter and Ryan take Jopwell to the next level.”

In the last year, Jopwell has brought on 40 additional corporate customers. Its current client roster includes Facebook, Box, Trello, Khan Academy, MasterCard, BuzzFeed, Jet and Etsy.

“We are incredibly selective on the companies we partner with,” Braswell told me in an interview last month. “We partner with companies that want to increase workforce diversity across divisions.”

On average, recruiter searches yield 250 qualified candidates from underrepresented ethnic minority groups. From a gender standpoint, 50 percent of the people Jopwell identify as female, 49 percent identify as male and 1 percent identify as non-binary.

Jopwell does not disclose the number of hires facilitated through the platform, but the company says it has facilitated over 6,000 connections between companies and potential job candidates. In Q4 2015, Jopwell saw employer searches for candidates triple.