Google for Startups Black Founders Fund announced the recipients of its fourth fund on Thursday, granting funds to one Colorado startup.
Denver-based InterviewIA received a $150,000 non-equity cash award from the fund to develop a new SaaS tool geared toward the health care industry.
InterviewIA created a SaaS interview collaboration platform for hiring teams intended to reduce biases along the interview process. The leaders of the startup said the platform allows recruiters, interviewers and others to consistently conduct equitable and data-driven interviews.
The award from Google will help InterviewIA continue developing its health care-focused interview platform, IIA Healthcare, which launched earlier this year.
“We are extremely grateful to receive funding from Google and it will help expand our mission to use combined pathways of experience to help organizations create equal opportunities for all individuals seeking purpose, a sense of belonging and meaningful work in their lives and society,” Joe Thurman, the founder of InterviewIA, said in a statement. “This funding will enable us to deepen our involvement in the health care market and will support the continued development of our technology and engineering teams.”
InterviewIA launched in July 2020, debuting its platform in January 2021. Its IIA Healthcare tool aims to help address hiring challenges and shortages in the health care space and is already being used by DispatchHealth, Children's Hospital of Oakland and others, Thurman told Colorado Inno in an email.
"We are excited about this sector because of the deep and meaningful impact that our product can have on how healthcare is delivered," he said in the email. "Health care systems are struggling to build teams to service the communities that they serve and our product is a key part of this solution. Bias mitigation, hiring process efficiency and data supported talent selection reduce early employee turn by 25% or more and build diverse teams capable of providing culturally competent and quality care to any community."
InterviewIA's current team of 16 people is expected to grow over the next 12 months. Thurman said he plans to make additional hires in sales, engineering and account management.
This cash award from Google comes two years after InterviewIA raised a $2 million seed round from several local investors, including The Colorado Impact Fund and Rockies Venture Club. Thurman said InterviewIA also recently secured an additional $500,000 in funding from Colorado-based New Community Transformation Fund.
The Google for Startups Black Founders Fund began in 2020 to help even the playing field for Black entrepreneurs when it comes to raising capital. The fund has since expanded to Latino founders in the U.S. and Black founders in Europe, Brazil and Asia.
InterviewIA is one of 46 companies in the U.S. receiving money from Google for Startups Black Founders' fourth fund, as well as the Latino Founders Fund, according to a Google blog post.
In addition to the cash award, InterviewIA and other recipients will receive hands-on support and mentorship from Google employees and up to $100,000 in Google Cloud credits. These businesses will also have free access to mental health coaching, sales training and other resources.
