At Amplify Capital, we actively support and invest in mission-driven founders and their startups across North America, focusing on healthcare, education, and environmental technologies. Our thesis is grounded in backing companies where purpose drives profit to deliver scalable and outsized financial alongside impact returns.
We believe we can foster impact investing and transform how we think about investing by doing well and doing good.
The Problem
Between June and September 2021, we witnessed 11.5 million Americans willingly leave their jobs in what is now called “the Great Resignation." The rise in job turnover has been attributed to burnout, dissatisfaction, and the inability to grow at a company and interventions by employers are low - the average job tenure in the United States is just 4.1 years. It is clear employers are struggling to find and retain diverse talent; on the other hand, employees are unhappy in their current work because of systemic and employer issues. Many are struggling to find work, let alone meaningful work and this continues to disproportionately impact visible minorities, low-income families, and women. Job seekers today require coaching, mentoring and networking along with the opportunity to develop job-ready skills. Access to continuing education and career advancement opportunities are required for retaining top talent to be successful.
The Solution
Uvaro has created a career accelerator that enables students to successfully prepare for a long-term career in tech sales. Their program is affordable and accessible and provides low-income workers and those struggling to find meaningful work and opportunities to unlock a new career journey and achieve a fair and living wage. For employers, Uvaro meets their needs to close existing skills gaps in sales and business development, grow a diverse & qualified workforce, and enable a more hassle-free recruitment process.
Uvaro leverages a 12-week curriculum built on the dataset of sales playbooks used by over 20,000 sales professionals. Uvaro members ramp up in one-third the time and achieve 50% more quota than their counterparts. Since launching online in January 2020, Uvaro’s sales academy has produced over 300 graduates and over 80% have gained employment. Members often experience up to a 120% increase in annual salary and are provided with the network and mentorship they need to grow their careers. The company’s deferred tuition model and scholarship fund lower the barriers to entry to career change that disproportionately affect women of colour and newcomers.
Impact
Uvaro has the ability to change thousands, if not millions, of lives by enabling an under-employed workforce to find meaningful, engaged and highly compensated work. The career opportunities through Uvaro’s coaching, mentoring and skills based accelerator allows this demographic to move out of low income, or no-growth income employment and into middle income with the opportunity to grow into upper income employment. At a glance, Uvaro graduates are hired 5x faster, ramp up 3x faster, and are 2x likely to exceed quota in their roles. Amplify was impressed with Joseph Fung and his co-founders' experience scaling tech startups and their passion to use their expertise to reduce inequalities and provide greater access to digital skills and future opportunities for all.
Their solution will help to:
Improve access to skills training: Uvaro has reduced barriers to access career-ready skills by upskilling those who currently experience low median incomes with no trajectory for career growth (SDG 4, Quality Education)
Support long term career advancement: beyond training students’ with the skills required to succeed in SaaS sales, the Company has also built a platform to match graduates with the right employers and the capacity to provide long term career support and manage growth and changes along their career path
Reduce employment and income inequalities: the Company is lifting lower-income populations with opportunities in the SaaS industry (SDG 5, Gender Equality; SDG 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 10, Reducing Inequalities). As diversity in the sales industry continues to support an increase in earnings for underrepresented populations in the workforce
“The tech sector is the fastest-growing segment of our economy and is expected to hire more than 250,000 individuals, with revenue-generating roles representing a significant proportion of this number,” says Joseph Fung, CEO of Uvaro. With the shift to hybrid and remote work, every employer is now tech-enabled. As a result, demand for our grads is through the roof. Our unique acceleration model is highly tuned to the needs of today’s job-seekers, employers and the future of work.”
We’re thrilled to welcome Uvaro to Amplify’s growing portfolio! If you’re as excited about Uvaro’s mission as we are, feel free to follow their journey with us. Remember to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on Amplify Capital’s exciting companies.
Are you working on something big that can leave a mark on the world? We’d love to hear from you! Visit us at Amplify Capital or reach out at hello@amplifycapital.ca.