Jopwell, the recruiting startup focused on diversity, has raised a $7.5 million Series A round led by Cue Ball Capital, bringing its total funding up to $11.75 million. Founded by Porter Braswell and Ryan Williams, Jopwell has an impressive group of investors, including Magic Johnson Enterprises, Andreessen Horowitz, Kapor Capital and Joe Montana.
This new round of funding will enable Jopwell to scale and take on more companies, Braswell and Williams told me. Jopwell’s primary focus has been on Fortune 1000 companies, but over the past two years or so, the company has seen demand from younger companies.
“Now that we’ve found success with that model, we know we can find success with smaller organizations of size and build out services that meet them where they are,” Braswell said.
To date, Jopwell has facilitated tens of thousands of connections between people of color and recruiters at top companies like Lyft, American Express, Conde Nast and Pinterest. Jopwell doesn’t disclose how many companies have made offers to candidates through the platform, but says there has been an increase in offers extended since 2015.
Jopwell itself is a pretty diverse company that is predominantly female (62 percent), 34 percent black, 28 percent Latinx, 21 percent Asian and 17 percent white.
“We are definitely an incredibly diverse organization which is why we’re successful,” Braswell said. “We are a true case study of how building a diverse company allows you to iterate and scale and succeed.”