Digital career development platform for black and ethnically-diverse professionals to be expanded with latest crowdfunding to help under-represented groups
Career Masterclass, champion of career development for ethnically-diverse professionals and under-represented groups, has secured the talents of two renowned business owners and financial service experts following its latest crowdfunding success.
Lead investors Claire Lincoln-White and David Newland of New Link Consulting joined 230 backers from across the globe who raised £413,000 to help scale the impact and reach of the digital career development platform.
Career Masterclass has grown organically over the years and now has a worldwide community of 11,000 members. Its mission is to become the one-stop career development platform working to level the playing field for professionals from under-represented or under-served groups by preparing them to grasp opportunities today and in the future.
The digital platform which launched last year is dedicated to providing access to dynamic career development content and masterclasses taught by real industry professionals, to ethnically-diverse professionals and under-represented groups across the globe.
The crowdfunding campaign, launched to expand its reach, raised 186% of its target and the funds will now be invested into the development of the underlying technology platform, to hire key staff and on marketing and broader brand penetration Career Masterclass CEO, Bukola Adisa says: “We are delighted to have Claire and David on board, they bring a wealth of business knowledge and experience to Career Masterclass and their confidence in us is confirmation that we are providing not only a much-needed service but one with proven success in transforming careers.”
“The support we have had from all our investors is so gratifying and shows how committed people are to helping us fill this gap – a recent study showed that for the first time in six years there are no black chairs, chief executive office or chief financial officers in the UK’s 100 largest companies.”
“As a result of this new funding we look forward to taking even greater strides forward, to promote our ethos and to reach and inspire even more under-represented and unsupported professionals to achieve a more fulfilling career.”
Claire Lincoln-White says: “We are delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with Bukola and her talented team at Career Masterclass and contribute to the next stage of the company’s growth. Whilst many people are empathetic to help underrepresented groups, we felt it necessary to take action and align our efforts to an organisation that not only shares our passion for change, but delivers an innovative and authentic solution. Working along-side Career Masterclass, our passion is to break the cycle around diversity, promote an equitable playing field where everybody, who choose to, are included. . This authentic and entrepreneurial approach resonates with individuals and clients alike. Their focus on attracting, retaining and developing talent is something we have always strived for in our own roles and it is important to us to work with an organisation which has been founded on this ethos. We are excited to bring our expertise to contribute to the company’s strategic evolution and to help advance its impact on diversity, equityand inclusion across the industry.”
Editor-in-Chief since 2011.