Koru, a Seattle, WA-based education startup, raised $4.35m in funding.
The round was led by Maveron, with participation from Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and a16z seed, as well as other individual investors. In conjunction with the funding, Maveron partner Clayton Lewis joined Koru’s board of directors.
Founded by CEO Kristen Hamilton and Josh Jarrett, Koru provides an experiential learning program designed to create workplace-ready recent college graduates and place them in high-growth work environments.
The company partners directly with actively hiring employers, and participants work and learn in the context of real-world challenges those employers provide.
Koru’s approach combines in-person instruction, professional mentorship, and online learning to teach job-specific skills and expose participants to the tools and techniques they need to be competitive in the modern workplace.
Participants get direct access to staff, executives and hiring managers and develop professional connections at other organizations through guest speakers and instructors.
The company has run pilot programs with REI and Trupanion and will launch 2014 with a Winter Break program at zulily, which has over 100 open positions to fill. Additional programs and partners will be announced early next year.
FinSMEs
12/12/2013