We’re thrilled to announce that Greenwork has raised $2.4M to pursue our mission: building a path for infrastructure workers to learn skills, find great jobs, and rebuild the world.
We’re proud to welcome a number of excellent investment firms to the Greenwork family:
- Climate Capital
- Defy Partners
- Global Founders Capital
- GV
- Kleiner Perkins Scout Fund
- ScoutFund
- Tango.vc
- UpHonest Capital
- Wing Venture Capital
- Y Combinator
We’re also very proud to welcome a number of angel investors, who’ve already become valuable collaborators and advisors. There are too many to cover, but here’s a non-exhaustive list:
- Alex Laskey, Rewiring America
- Amit Narayan, CEO, AutoGrid
- Aston Motes
- August Flanagan, Founder, Cronitor
- Ian McHenry
- Kat Taylor, Co-Founder Beneficial State Bank, Co-Founder TomKat Ranch (and Sam’s mom)
- Matthew Himler, Principal, Energy Capital Partners
- Max Motschwiller, Partner, Meritech Capital
- Niffer Nan & Jie Tang
- Ross Chanin, CEO, Artifact
- Teddy Himler, Antler
- Toby Espinosa, VP, DoorDash
- Tom Steyer, Investor and Presidential Candidate (and Sam’s dad)
- Waseem Daher, CEO, Pilot
Thank you, to all of our investors, for putting your faith in us.
We‘d like to extend heartfelt thanks to our families and friends. Early-stage startups are tough, and you’ve been consistently supportive and awesome. We also want to offer a thank you to our number one advisor at Greenwork, Sarah Rizk. We will definitely ask you all for more support in the months and years to come, as this is still day one, but we want to pause now and say how much we appreciate you.
What We Do, and Why
Our long-term vision at Greenwork is to build LinkedIn for skilled blue-collar workers, offering the core professional platform for the trades, manufacturing, logistics, and home service technicians. However, we’re starting with a much narrower focus. Today, Greenwork is a platform connecting vocational training organizations like community colleges, conservation corps, and pre-apprenticeships with jobs at clean energy companies. Our platform is live across California. We’re helping employers hire and grow today.
Industrial employers face a shrinking labor force and a declining interest in the trades, driven by a generation’s worth of negative messages about skilled blue-collar careers. At the same time, industrial companies face huge, vital tasks: building the many projects in the federal infrastructure bill, creating a carbon-free energy and transportation system, and growing our cities to accommodate an urbanizing population. Companies need to hire a ton of talent, and it’s nearly impossible to find.
Trade schools and training programs are expanding to meet this massive need. However, these schools lack an organized, efficient way to connect with employers. There are unrealized opportunities: people completing multiple vocational training courses without getting a job, or graduates of an 18-month construction program ending up in part-time shift work at a restaurant.
We connect employers with training programs. This gives school leaders confidence that their students will get the opportunity to put their skills to use and make a good living. It also helps these essential companies grow. Students training for infrastructure jobs need a product that’s straightforward, approachable, and leads to real jobs quickly. Employers need a place to hire people they can trust, now.
On that note — if you’re hiring for skilled frontline roles: solar technicians, project managers, construction workers, logisticians, HVAC technicians, we’d love to talk. If you run a school that trains people to do this kind of work, we’d love to hear from you too!
We plan to use this round of funding to hone our product connecting training organizations and employers and to grow our team. Infrastructure companies are taking on challenges of epic importance now: decarbonization, broadband extension, affordable housing, and more. We can’t wait to get back to work helping them succeed.
Sam & Gautam
