JFFVentures

We're excited to welcome new members to the JFFVentures Corporate Innovation Council! The Council is an innovative model that brings together leaders from Jobs for the Future (JFF)'s corporate network to support the growth and impact of JFFV portfolio companies. Our council brings together visionary leaders in talent development, DEI&B, venture capital, and corporate social responsibility who share their expertise to help promising workforce innovations better navigate and scale with large employers, driving equity and opportunity for low and middle wage workers. Together with the existing council, our new members will support entrepreneurs as they scale high-impact solutions that increase access economic opportunity for all. Please join us in welcoming Jocelyn Caldwell of Pilot Company, Lisa (Hunt) Schumacher of McDonald's, Mari Sifo, SPHR, GPHR, SHRM-SCP of Host Hotels & Resorts, Anshul Sonak of Intel Corporation, Kathryn Tague of Northwestern Mutual, and Tammy Thieman of Amazon to the JFFVentures Corporate Innovation Council! 🚀 #WorkforceDevelopment #SocialImpact #Innovation

Proud to share that our portfolio company Sparkwise has partnered with Harvard Business Review to launch their virtual AI training program: "Generative AI Skills: Craft Smart Prompts." This collaboration brings together HBR's expertise in business education with Sparkwise's innovative learning platform to help teams master AI tools effectively. Congratulations to the Sparkwise team on this significant milestone! 🎉 #GenerativeAI #EdTech #VentureCapital Vince Jeong

JFFVentures is on a mission to invest in solutions that help drive economic mobility for all. We recently welcomed Besolo into our portfolio, a platform focused on transforming self-employment by streamlining complex tasks like benefits, tax filings, payroll, and compliance. With 41 million Americans running one-person businesses, JFFVentures is focused on supporting innovative solutions that make self-employment more accessible. By tackling common challenges for this population of workers, Besolo enables solopreneurs to focus on growing their businesses and thriving in today’s economy. Read more about Besolo here: https://lnkd.in/gECz_Bj9 Mark Jackson Jeff Taggart Yigal Kerszenbaum Sabari Raja Monica Pacheco Priscilla Luu Abby Conyers #ImpactInvesting #FutureOfWork #Entrepreneurship

We're excited to share about an innovative partnership addressing career equity gaps for HBCU students! The Thurgood Marshall College Fund's collaboration with Territorium is bringing AI-powered career development tools directly to students through the Life Journey app. Early results are promising—100% of student users report seeing the app's value for their career journey, regardless of their year in college. By combining personalized assessments, digital badging, and AI-driven career matching, this partnership is helping address historical disparities in post-graduation outcomes. Territorium offers an innovative, tech-enabled solution connecting students with career opportunities, an important step toward reaching the Jobs for the Future (JFF) North Star goal of 75 million people facing systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs by 2033. Read more about the partnership in Inside Higher Ed: https://lnkd.in/eu9nsJvN Are you building tech-enabled solutions to connect workers and learners to quality jobs? We'd love to connect with you. #HigherEd #CareerDevelopment #HBCU #EquityInEducation #WorkforceDevelopment

Manny S. was invited to the The White House and to speak at the U.S. Department of Education on how EdVisorly is driving innovation and impact for institutions and students nationwide as well as his journey as a founder.⭐️ President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted an intimate event, providing unique insight on the administration’s progress in expanding the U.S. Classroom to Career initiatives. 🇺🇸 Among the many exceptional attendees, Manny connected with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo and Maria Flynn, President and CEO of Jobs for the Future (JFF)! 🚀 #EdVisorly #WhiteHouse #USDepartmentofEducation #JFF #UnlockingCareerSuccess #RaisetheBar #AI

Yesterday, three JFFVentures portfolio companies were at the White House for the Classroom to Career Pathways Summit hosted by the U.S. Department of Education, speaking about their journeys as entrepreneurs and the importance of growing tomorrow's entrepreneurs from today's students. Thank you all for your important work building a more inclusive system of higher education that promotes equity, upward mobility, and opportunity. Andrew Bikash Ben Grossman Jessica Hutcheson Manny S. Kanu ChargerHelp EdVisorly Jobs for the Future (JFF)

Investing in workforce innovation is central to our mission at JFFVentures. In the Better Money Better World podcast, JFFVentures’ managing partners Yigal Kerszenbaum and Sabari Raja shared insights into how we’re advancing economic opportunity by supporting early-stage companies addressing critical gaps for today’s workforce. Through targeted investments in skill-building and career access, we’re helping to build a stronger, more inclusive economy. #ImpactInvesting #WorkforceDevelopment #FutureOfWork Impact Capital Managers Daniel Pianko Listen to the conversation to learn more: https://lnkd.in/gxTcgiGz

🎤 JFFVentures managing partner Sabari Raja will be speaking at the PEI Impact & Transition Investor Summit next week, reflecting on how investors are addressing the skills gap through innovative solutions to education and upskilling. Amy Nelson (Rethink Education), Tong Gu (Pact), Ashley Bittner (Kalos Ventures), and Josh Tanenbaum (Rebalance Capital) Don't have a ticket yet? Register here: https://lnkd.in/guHUnggy

To stay competitive in today's tight labor market, U.S. companies are scrambling to improve the way that they hire, train, and retain workers from once-overlooked backgrounds. Yet nearly 2 million college-educated immigrants and refugees in the United States remain under- or unemployed. In a new op-ed for RealClear Media Group, JFFVentures Managing Partner Yigal Kerszenbaum highlights innovative solutions to unlock the potential of the immigrant workforce—from enhanced English language learning and education opportunities to comprehensive support services like transportation and childcare. At JFFVentures, we're actively investing in early-stage, impact-first companies that are building solutions across education and workforce to support this critical population of workers (and we’re already seeing the impact of innovative solutions through portfolio companies like Pace AI and SHARE Mobility). Are you a #founder building in this space or an #investor passionate about this mission? Let's connect and explore opportunities together! Read the full op-ed here: https://lnkd.in/gXzKej-s #immigration #workforcedevelopment #futureofwork

Jobs for the Future (JFF) interviewed 40 practitioners, business leaders, technology entrepreneurs, academic experts, and policymakers to discover their insights on how we might better catalyze the growth of the skills-first ecosystem. Key takeaways: #️⃣ To make a case for skills-based hiring, we need hard evidence. Quality outcomes data is essential to proving the effectiveness of skills-first approaches at scale. 👤 There are too many products in the space that fail to meet user needs. Solutions should be simple and solve a problem for users—not just focus on innovation or rapid product design. ⚙️ Successful skills-first solutions will simplify systems, align data frameworks, and ensure that successful models can be adapted to different industries and organizational sizes. Many JFFVentures portfolio companies are building high-quality, user-centered tools to accelerate skills-first practices (AdeptID, Territorium, Hireguide, Upright Education to name a few). Are you an early stage company building in the skills-first space? We want to hear from you! Read the full piece here: https://lnkd.in/ghWpvVBv Meena Naik Nate Anderson