Koru (Company)

Koru
Industry Software
Founded 2013
Founder Kristen Hamilton & Josh Jarrett
Headquarters Seattle, WA, United States
Website www.joinkoru.com

Koru is a privately held talent screening and selection technology company based in Seattle, WA., applying predictive analytics to assessment science to provide some of the world’s leading enterprises[1] as well as innovative, high-growth companies[2] with more effective and efficient talent screening, selection and development.

Koru’s roots are in training millennials to be job ready for growing companies. Koru originally ran college-to-career training programs for recent college graduates in Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston and worked with growing companies searching for entry-level talent.[3] Koru’s transformative work with millennial early-career talent has been profiled in national publications including Forbes, Fortune, The Washington Post, and Time.[4][5][6][7] The company continues working with early-career talent both in their Talent Innovation Lab and through employer-sponsored development programs, such as LinkedIn’s Accelerate U.[8]

Over the course of their first three years, Koru worked to understand the needs of the employers[9] who hired large volumes of recent college graduates. Through this work, Koru identified the core drivers of performance at large enterprises and high-growth, innovative companies.[10] Named the Koru7™ Impact Skills,[11] they include Grit, Rigor, Impact, Teamwork, Curiosity, Ownership, and Polish. In 2015, Koru productized the ability to measure the Koru7™ in a proprietary assessment and predictive model-driven automated online talent screening and selection tool and began offering it to large enterprise companies to help them more efficiently increase their quality of hire and diversity. Koru's work in using predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to improve hiring outcomes was featured by Reuters and Fast Company.[12][13]

History

Koru was co-founded in September 2013 by Kristen Hamilton, co-founder of Onvia and Josh Jarrett; formerly of the Gates Foundation.[14][15][16] Hamilton spent the greater part of her career in technology and education, including serving as COO of World Learning and Global Director Educator Strategy at Microsoft.[17] In the spring of 2013, when looking for a way to combine her experience in technology and education, Hamilton and a friend were talking one night about how companies find and hire young talent. Inspired by that conversation, Hamilton later teamed up with higher education innovator Jarrett, who had spent seven years developing and guiding the higher education work at the Gates Foundation using predictive analytics and competency-based assessment. This partnership eventually led to the foundation of Koru in Seattle.[18]

Koru received seed funding in the amount of $4.35 million in October 2013, led by Maveron, Battery Ventures, First Round Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.[19][20] Koru added $8 million in funding in 2015 with a Series A round that included original investors as well as the addition of City Light Capital and Trilogy Equity Partners.[21][22][23] Koru was the winner of the GeekWire Start-Up of the Year in 2015.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The World's Biggest Public Companies". Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  2. ↑ "America's Most Promising Companies". Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  3. ↑ "About Koru | Land a Job You Love". Koru. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  4. ↑ Klebnikov, Sergei. "What Employers Are Looking For When Hiring Recent College Grads". Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  5. ↑ "The rise of the self-reliant young worker". Fortune. 2015-05-01. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  6. ↑ "What happens when colleges fail to prepare graduates for jobs?". Washington Post. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  7. ↑ Clark, Kim. "The Best Colleges for Your Money". MONEY.com. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  8. ↑ "Linkedin: Accelerate U". linkedinaccelerateu.splashthat.com. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  9. ↑ "Koru Employer Partners". Koru. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  10. ↑ "Koru | The Science Behind the Koru7". Koru. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  11. ↑ "The Koru 7 - Koru". Koru. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  12. ↑ "Wall Street hopes artificial intelligence software helps it hire loyal bankers". Reuters. 2016-06-07. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  13. ↑ "Can Using Artificial Intelligence Make Hiring Less Biased?". 2016-05-18. Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  14. ↑ "Onvia co-founder raises $4.35M for Koru, helping college grads find impactful jobs". 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  15. ↑ "Koru wants to help millions of underemployed college grads get good jobs". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  16. ↑ Korn, Melissa. "Want a Job? Go to Camp—Career Camp". Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  17. ↑ "LinkedIn".
  18. ↑ "Koru raises $4.35 Million - PE HUB". 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  19. ↑ "Koru raises $4.35 Million - PE HUB". 2013-12-12. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  20. ↑ Hockenson, Lauren. "Gigaom | Koru raises $4.35 million to educate college kids on how to land a job". Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  21. ↑ Koru. "Koru Secures $8 Million Series A Funding Led By Maveron". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  22. ↑ Lardinois, Frederic. "Koru Raises $8M Series A Round For Its Talent Marketplace". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  23. ↑ "'Talent marketplace' Koru raises $8M to help college grads land great jobs". 2015-01-29. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
  24. ↑ "Revealed: The winners of the 2015 GeekWire Awards". 2015-05-08. Retrieved 2016-08-17.

External links

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