The Mom Project, a Chicago startup that’s built an online platform to connect employers to viable female candidates, has raised its first round of funding to help it expand across more markets.
The job marketplace platform, founded in 2016 by Allison Robinson, raised $2.6 million in a seed round led by the Atlanta Seed Company, with participation from Chicago-based OCA Ventures, BBG Ventures, Wintrust Ventures and IrishAngels. Additionally, the startup received funding from the largest corporate VC group, Engage VC, which includes companies, such as AT&T, Delta Air Lines and Chick-fil-A, among others.
“We are thrilled to announce the seed funding and that our value proposition is resonating so strongly with America’s leading companies who are looking for actionable solutions to address their diversity and talent goals,” Robinson said in a statement. “My goal in starting The Mom Project was to unleash the full economic potential of the female population by bridging the divide between mothers and the employers who need their critical skills. This truly is only the beginning.”
Though The Mom Project helps a variety of job-seekers find work, the startup takes a special interest in matching women who have left the job market to start a family or for other personal reasons get back into it. In September, the startup helped BP launch the BP Returnship Program, an initiative to help these kind of women re-enter a competitive job market through roles at the oil company.
The Mom Project has clients and users in nearly every major metropolitan market, including Atlanta, San Francisco and New York, mainly working with corporate partners and colleges to get in front of prospective users.
The startup says it will use the new funding to support the platform’s expansion to other cities, as well as technology investments that allow them to streamline how they match candidates with the most relevant opportunities.
The startup’s network includes more than 30,000 experienced professionals and hundreds of companies, including over 20 of the nation’s Fortune 1,000, such as BP, Transunion and Jones Lang LaSalle.
