Whereas engaged on their MBAs at Harvard Enterprise Faculty, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez seen that a lot of the staff within the cafeteria have been Hispanic. In conversations with them, a standard theme stored arising: how tough it was for individuals who legally moved to the U.S. from Spanish-speaking nations to search out their first jobs in the US. Not talking English nicely or in any respect, unsurprisingly, was the largest problem.
“However then we’re wanting on the information and seeing that the U.S. is definitely dealing with an unprecedented labor shortage, particularly for most of these positions the place you’ll often see low-skilled immigrant staff,” Murra advised TechCrunch in an interview. “So we have been like, ‘Okay, there’s undoubtedly 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 converse English and are usually not actually good with know-how, are used to discovering jobs via buddies,” she defined. Additional, they’re typically confused by on-line purposes and get intimidated by the thought of somebody interviewing them in English.
The thought 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 ultimate 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 search out steady jobs because of language and cultural limitations,” stated Vélez.
“We all know the place to search out the employees, converse their language and talk with them by way of 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 immediately by employers slightly than via staffing companies, which they are saying not solely saves employers cash, however offers them a bigger pool of potential workers to select from. On the flip facet, “staff achieve entry to unbelievable job alternatives which can be tough 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 via WhatsApp and voice-based AI interviews. For now, it is just centered on the hospitality trade however plans to broaden into different sectors corresponding to 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 internet income has grown from $70,000 in February of 2024 to $550,000 immediately. 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.
Right this moment, Ponte is working with 14 employers utilizing its platform to rent staff, like Omni Motels & Resorts, in addition to massive resort administration corporations corresponding to Pyramid International, Peachtree Resort Group, and Atrium Hospitality.
The startup not too long ago raised a $3 million seed spherical led by Harlem Capital at a $15 million valuation, it advised TechCrunch solely. 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 price 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 trade, if the employee leaves throughout the first month, the resort pays nothing.
Presently, the startup has 15 full-time workers.
As a result of Ponte’s social media and recruiting channels are in Spanish, over 95% of its candidates are Hispanic immigrants, famous Murra. Moreover 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 purpose 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 wish to assist them develop inside these jobs,” Vélez stated. “We see one of many greatest alternatives in serving to the candidates study 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 liked that Lorenza and Stephanie have been former colleagues at Addi…after which roommates at HBS collectively earlier than beginning Ponte,” he advised TechCrunch. “We acquired very optimistic references from prospects who raved about their product. They’ve managed to see robust traction in little time. It was apparent that Stephanie and Lorenza may do lots with little or no.”
Pierre-Jacques additionally believes that Ponte’s concentrate on Hispanic hospitality staff is “an enormous differentiator.”
Certainly, Hispanics accounted for nearly one-half, or 47.6%, of the foreign-born labor pressure in 2023 within the U.S., in response to the U.S. Division of Labor.
“With expertise marketplaces we’re all the time fascinated by how our founders handle the provision facet,” he stated. “We have now seen the ability of WhatsApp inside this neighborhood and Stephanie and Lorenza understood integrating the recruiting workflow via WhatsApp was the most effective channel to search out their staff.”