Ramped raises $3.1 million

Ramped, a job skilling and recruitment platform, has closed a $3.1 million seed round of financing, with participation from Hustle Fund, Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, Workplay Ventures, Vastly Viable Ventures, Eudemian Ventures, ETF@JFFLabs, Graph Ventures, and Operate VC.

Founded in 2020, Ramped helps job seekers attain credentials and experience desired by “top employers.” The startup claims that members, with access to the platform’s skill-based compatibility scale, average five applications per job, “a 13x better success rate.” Ramped, which focuses on early-career sales talent, allows users to augment their learning and gain new functional job skills to optimize their search process. MassMutual and Northwestern Mutual are listed as clients.

“Today’s job market is battle-tested and weary, but ready to tackle new challenges on the other side of the pandemic. Our investors are true partners who also believe the job search is antiquated and can create false expectations. It’s our goal to leverage this new capital to build a community of empowered, highly-qualified job seekers who can match with top employers in need of a more efficient barometer for evaluating talent.” – Ramped CEO and co-founder Manoj Jonna.

“We recognize there is a need to reimagine the job search process for a new generation and an evolving workforce. Ramped is meeting that need head on, helping candidates develop the skills and qualifications that are desired by top employers, like Northwestern Mutual. We are thrilled to be a part of this industry realignment to help more job seekers grow and excel in their careers.” – Craig Schedler, managing director of Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures.

Ramped has attracted thousands of job seekers and has aligned with more than 125 top corporate partners, including Fortune 500 companies and leading tech ‘unicorns’. One of the company’s key differentiators is its appeal to diverse candidates from wide-ranging backgrounds, including 64% of job seekers who identify as “diverse” or “minority”.

“We are a career-first platform that is proud to serve one of the most highly-trained generations of workers in economic history. You always hear that finding a full-time job is a full-time job, but that doesn’t have to be the case anymore. It’s time to make the process more rewarding, efficient, and beneficial to early-and-mid-career job seekers who have already experienced a lot of rejection from the market.” – Ramped co-founder Danny Leonard.