Uvaro’s Recipe For Career Success Fuels Investor Interest To The Tune Of $12M
A Learning Moment
As founders, one of the most common questions we get about Uvaro is, “What’s special about your curriculum?”
That’s the exact question Christophe Bourque, Partner at White Star Capital who is now leading Uvaro’s $12M Series A, asked us earlier this summer.
“The truth is,” Joseph replied to Christophe, “what makes Uvaro special isn’t what we teach our customers. It’s what our customers teach us…”
The Career Success Company
We couldn’t have said it any better. Our customers have taught us that career success is a journey, not a destination. It starts by deciding to take control and change your life. It becomes about landing your first interview. Getting your first job. Closing your first meeting. Hitting quota. Being recognized by your team. Quitting a toxic environment. Living your values. Finding strength and resilience. Persevering. Taking on more responsibility. Advancement and promotions. Finding mentors. Making more money. Giving back. Helping others.
In one recent customer’s words: “A career isn’t who you are. It’s what you do to become who you want to be.” (Brandon, who started Uvaro in September 2021). Our customers have taught us that career success is seeing challenge as opportunity, and being supported enough to chase it.
At Uvaro, we strive to be the support our customers need to chase the opportunities of their dreams. It’s our dream to help our customers have more fulfilling careers and become the people they want to be. That’s why we’re building Uvaro into “The Career Success company.”
Investors Who Care
When Joseph explained all this to Christophe, and shared more about the impact Uvaro has on people’s lives, Joseph had no idea that Christophe already knew about Uvaro. As it turns out, one of our customers was working at a White Star portfolio company and had already given Christophe the inside scoop. By the time he and Joseph spoke, Christophe already knew he wanted to get involved with Uvaro.
White Star is a global fund that is known for supporting businesses that build remarkable consumer brands while driving real-world change for the better. They’ve invested in companies such as Borrowell and Dollar Shave Club, and now Uvaro is counted among their investments.
It was critical for us to partner with the right funds to help drive this next phase of growth. To be successful in our mission, we require partners who understand the social responsibility we owe to our customers. We’re excited that in addition to White Star, we are also supported by Amplify Capital, BDC Women in Tech, and Real Ventures — all funds who believe in businesses doing good.
Like Uvaro, our bench of investors cares about making the world more equitable and sustainable for all.
Communities that Care
As founders, we’re often asked how our fundraising efforts came together, and the answer is always found in our communities.
The seeds of our first conversations with Christophe were planted in San Francisco, at a dinner hosted by C100, where Joseph met Eva Wong, Co-Founder and COO at Borrowell. After learning more about Uvaro’s impact, she connected us with Christophe, one of her recommended investors.
The rest of our round was similarly community-driven. We’ve always been great believers in building an impact-driven company: We’re members of the Pledge 1% and the Upside Foundation, we donate to the Uvaro Community Fund, and earlier this year we launched our Impact Scholarships. Uvaro’s products also directly address several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. As we sought advice on how to best tell this story, we were introduced to the team at Amplify Capital, who kindly spent many hours with us, refining our story. Now, with their investment in Uvaro, we’ll be able to better realize our shared vision of the impact that drives results.
What’s Next
It’s thrilling to embark on Uvaro’s next phase of growth. In the coming months we’ll bring new career development programs to market. We’ll fund more scholarships aimed to increase diversity in the tech sector. And we’ll be entering into more collaborations with industry authorities such as the AA-ISP.
Most importantly, we’ll continue to respond to what our customers need, so that we can support their unique and lifelong career journeys. We’ve learned a lot so far but we realize we’ve only just scratched the surface. It’s our customers’ successes that have brought us to where we are today, and now it’s up to us to ensure that our success continues to serve our customers in return. That’s our commitment. We take this responsibility seriously.
As tech founders who have worked together for two decades, we never could have imagined our journey would bring us here, But now, looking back, it seems like the only direction we were ever set on taking. It’s a true privilege and honor to be on a mission to help the world’s professionals have more fulfilling careers.
We can’t wait to see the people our customers become.
- Donna, Derek, and Joseph
