LOS ANGELES, April 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Home From College (H\FC), the next-generation career platform, today announced a $5.4 million seed round led by GV (Google Ventures). Having established itself as a leader in the college career space, with a presence on campuses across all 50 states with over 100,000 users, Home From College aims to use the new capital to expand its product offerings to reach those in the first 10 years of their career journeys and continue building out its world-class team across product, sales, and marketing. Over the past three years, the company has raised a total of $6.9 million and seen annual revenue growth of 300 percent.
“Home From College is a first-of-its-kind destination for young people, driven by the founding team’s vision to build a comprehensive and dynamic marketplace that meets the needs of today’s professionals beyond what legacy platforms provide,” said KJ Sidberry, Partner at GV. “We’re excited to support Julia Haber, Kaj Zandvliet, and the Home From College team as they transform the talent and hiring landscape, providing new opportunities for young professionals to connect with the brands they love.”
GenZ, known as the first “digital native” generation is swiftly growing into one of the most powerful consumer groups entering the workforce with massive spending power. They are projected to account for 30 percent of the US labor pool by 2030, equating to nearly 50 million jobs, which presents a huge opportunity for brands to connect with this audience. Founded in 2021, Home From College was created to provide a marketplace platform where brands can source and connect with GenZ professionals in a completely different way compared to traditional job sites. It is democratizing access to GIG work for young professionals while simultaneously enabling businesses to leverage new marketing avenues and connect with consumers where they shop.
The H\FC GIG, the company’s core product, gives students a place to find and apply for flexible opportunities, from one-day projects to continuous roles that align with their location, interests, and budding skills. It provides a seamless entry point for testing new roles and bolstering resumes and is oftentimes a user’s first source of income. Home From College has become a trusted platform for notable companies such as Poppi, Aquaphor, Thrive Market, Peacock, Steve Madden, and hundreds more seeking a fresh approach. Its solution makes it easy for brands to review, contract, manage, pay, and even source long-term hires across a range of freelance work, content creation, ambassador programs, product testing, and internships. A common interest among brands and students alike is marketing support.
As social media persists as a primary hub for product discovery and purchases, with 68 percent of consumers identifying it as their main method of engaging with favored brands, Home From College (and its network of students) is supporting brands in building authentic community connections. The platform champions a shift from asymmetric advertising, where consumers feel like targets, to a more organic relationship between brands and their audiences.
“Home From College has changed the way we interact and connect with our GenZ audience”, said Sonny Rothstadt, PR, Partnership & Event Director at Poppi. “It has provided us with a seamless solution for everything from content creation to finding innovative new team members …and it continues to be a platform we turn to when ideating and creating our biggest campaigns. There truly is nothing else like it on the market and it has been such a valuable contributor to our growth.”
“Since our launch in 2021, we’ve seen tremendous organic growth and product adoption among young professional communities we care about”, said Julia Haber, Co-Founder and CEO of Home From College. “Home From College has blossomed into a powerful resource, and it’s just scratching the surface of what it can offer. We are excited to have support from GV and our clients as we further our mission and reinvent professional tools for the next generation.”
Julia is a veteran in the college space, having previously founded her first startup while a freshman in college. Her first company WAYV brought brands like Shopify, Refinery29, and Rent the Runway to college campuses across the country. She is complemented by her co-founder, Kaj Zandvliet, who has a finance and operations background with previous experience at Sony Corporation and PineBridge Investments. His struggles to find diversity of professional experiences during his college career is a primary driver for building the platform. He is an operator and instrumental in building and scaling the tech-first marketplace for one of the hardest-to-capture audiences. To learn more visit: homefromcollege.com.
About Home From College
Founded in 2021 by Julia Haber and Kaj Zandvliet, Home From College is a technology platform developed to provide career solutions for young professionals. The platform provides better access to the Gen Z generation for companies. The platform’s main product, the H\FC GIG marketplace, is used by over 100,000 students and hundreds of brands, large and small. Home From College has experienced explosive growth since its founding. With 90% of college students graduating without any professional experience, yet 70% of the Gen Z generation reportedly seeking GIG work and better resources, broader economic trends are fueling Home From College’s growth. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA.
About GV
GV supports innovative founders moving the world forward. We invest across the life sciences, consumer, enterprise, crypto, climate, and frontier technology sectors. With Alphabet as a sole limited partner, GV operates on long time horizons and deals in decades, not rounds. Our operating partners support startups at the earliest stages of company-building across design, equity, diversity & inclusion, talent, and engineering. We also help startups interface with Google, providing unique access to the world’s best technology and talent.
Launched as Google Ventures in 2009, GV has over $10 billion in assets under management and 400 active portfolio companies across North America and Europe. Notable investment outcomes include Uber, Nest, Slack, GitLab, Duo Security, Flatiron Health, Verve Therapeutics, and One Medical. GV is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Cambridge, New York, and London.
