Daughters of Ugandan immigrants become first Black women to raise $1M in funding in Kansas

Two daughters of Ugandan immigrants are now the first Black women to raise $1 million in funding in the state of Kansas.

Deborah Gladney and Angela Muhwezi-Hall —raised the money for their company, QuickHire– as first reported in Face2FaceAfrica.

QuickHire is a career discovery platform working with service workers to find job and advancement opportunities.

Launched in April 2021, the company already has more than 60 paying clients, including Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and Homewood Suites by Hilton, as well as more than 11,000 job seekers, according to a news release.

“Nearly 110 million people in the U.S. work in the service industry, yet, employment technology innovations primarily cater to white-collar jobs,” Gladney stated.

Muhwezi-Hall adds, “Given the service worker shortages across the county, we are helping workers and companies connect not just for a job, but a career.”

QuickHire targets workers and businesses in the metro areas of Wichita and Kansas City. The company plans to expand across the Midwest and add skilled-labor verticals in 2022.

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The seed funding round was led by MATH Venture Partners. The funding will go towards technology investments and team expansion.

“We see the QuickHire team approaching the market differently – putting skilled trade and service workers first in geographies that have been traditionally overlooked,” says Dana Wright, managing partner at MATH Venture Partners. “The timing is right for this approach. We are excited to be part of this funding round, providing fuel for product innovation and market expansion,” adds Wright.

This $1.41M in funding makes Gladney and Muhwezi-Hall only two of roughly 100 Black women to raise more than $1M in venture funding as of December 2020, according to ProjectDiane.

“We are underserved founders serving underserved workers. The more barriers we can remove, the more opportunity we can unleash for deserving, hard-working people,” adds Muhwezi-Hall.