Whereas engaged on their MBAs at Harvard Enterprise Faculty, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez observed that many of the staff within the cafeteria have been Hispanic. In conversations with them, a typical theme stored developing: how troublesome it was for individuals who legally moved to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking international locations to seek out their first jobs in america. Not talking English effectively or in any respect, unsurprisingly, was the largest problem.
“However then we’re trying on the information and seeing that the U.S. is definitely going through an unprecedented labor scarcity, particularly for these kinds of positions the place you’d normally see low-skilled immigrant staff,” Murra instructed TechCrunch in an interview. “So we have been like, ‘Okay, there’s positively a problem right here.’”
The roommates started doing analysis and realized that many potential employers would use conventional job boards like Certainly, which is “not meant for Hispanic immigrants,” Murra stated.
“These staff, a lot of whom don’t communicate English and usually are not actually good with expertise, are used to discovering jobs by means of associates,” she defined. Additional, they’re usually confused by on-line purposes and get intimidated by the concept of somebody interviewing them in English.
The concept for Ponte Labor was born. The duo — who had beforehand labored collectively for 2 years at Colombian fintech Addi — based the Miami-based firm in April 2023, throughout their last semester at Harvard.
“Employers in hospitality, building, retail, and different blue-collar industries actually wrestle to fill hourly roles whereas hundreds of thousands of work-authorized Hispanic immigrants wrestle to seek out steady jobs as a consequence of language and cultural obstacles,” stated Vélez.
“We all know the place to seek out the employees, communicate their language and talk with them through their most popular channel, WhatsApp. So we constructed Ponte to bridge this hole,” Vélez added.
The founders declare that their hiring platform pre-vets, matches, and onboards legally licensed hourly staff “quicker and extra effectively than conventional strategies.”
Staff are employed instantly by employers relatively than by means of staffing businesses, which they are saying not solely saves employers cash, however provides them a bigger pool of potential staff to select from. On the flip aspect, “staff acquire entry to unbelievable job alternatives which can be troublesome for them to entry in any other case,” Vélez added.
Ponte solely works with documented immigrants: each candidate is pre-vetted for authorized work authorization earlier than reaching an employer.
The startup has constructed an in-house AI recruiter which pre-vets candidates by means of WhatsApp and voice-based AI interviews. For now, it is just targeted on the hospitality business however plans to develop into different sectors resembling building or elder care sooner or later.
Quick progress
Ponte has been steadily rising since Murra and Vélez formally launched the platform in November 2023, onboarding over 60,000 candidates and putting practically 800 staff in hospitality roles. Its annualized web income has grown from $70,000 in February of 2024 to $550,000 right this moment. It’s not but worthwhile, however the pair say they function with excessive contribution margins, so their mannequin is extra scalable. Thus far, they are saying they’ve burned lower than $1 million.
In the present day, Ponte is working with 14 employers utilizing its platform to rent staff, like Omni Lodges & Resorts, in addition to massive resort administration corporations resembling Pyramid International, Peachtree Resort Group, and Atrium Hospitality.
The startup lately raised a $3 million seed spherical led by Harlem Capital at a $15 million valuation, it instructed TechCrunch completely. Higher Tomorrow Ventures, The 81 Assortment, and Wischoff Ventures additionally participated within the financing. Ponte beforehand raised one other $1.5 million mixed from Higher Tomorrow Ventures’ The Mint accelerator, NFX’s FAST Competitors and The 81 Assortment.
The corporate’s income mannequin is success-based. Ponte fees a month-to-month charge equal to 10% of a employee’s month-to-month wage for as much as 12 months. As a result of it’s a excessive turnover business, if the employee leaves inside the first month, the resort pays nothing.
Presently, the startup has 15 full-time staff.
As a result of Ponte’s social media and recruiting channels are in Spanish, over 95% of its candidates are Hispanic immigrants, famous Murra. In addition to utilizing WhatsApp, it additionally locations adverts on Fb and Instagram.
“That focus has helped us construct deep belief with the neighborhood and tailor our method to their particular wants,” she stated. “However we’re constructing instruments which can be language-agnostic and will simply be tailored to serve different immigrant communities, together with Portuguese-speaking Brazilians, sooner or later.”
And, she added, the startup has even supported native English audio system who discovered Ponte, which was named after the phrase in Portuguese which means “bridge.”
Wanting forward, the founders say Ponte’s objective is to “create a spot to assist Hispanic immigrants within the U.S. obtain their skilled objectives.”
“In order that’s not simply serving to them discover an entry stage job. We additionally need to assist them develop inside these jobs,” Vélez stated. “We see one of many largest alternatives in serving to the candidates be taught English, as a result of that’s the place they get caught between the place they’re proper now and getting a promotion for his or her subsequent job.”
Henri Pierre-Jacques, managing associate of Harlem Capital, stated he’d been monitoring the founders from Ponte’s pre-seed days.
“I beloved that Lorenza and Stephanie have been former colleagues at Addi…after which roommates at HBS collectively earlier than beginning Ponte,” he instructed TechCrunch. “We acquired very constructive references from clients who raved about their product. They’ve managed to see robust traction in little time. It was apparent that Stephanie and Lorenza may do rather a lot with little or no.”
Pierre-Jacques additionally believes that Ponte’s deal with Hispanic hospitality staff is “an enormous differentiator.”
Certainly, Hispanics accounted for practically one-half, or 47.6%, of the foreign-born labor pressure in 2023 within the U.S., in line with the U.S. Division of Labor.
“With expertise marketplaces we’re at all times occupied with how our founders handle the availability aspect,” he stated. “We have now seen the facility of WhatsApp inside this neighborhood and Stephanie and Lorenza understood integrating the recruiting workflow by means of WhatsApp was the most effective channel to seek out their staff.”
