Joonko
Joonko Diversity Inc. was a technology company that marketed artificial intelligence-powered online tools to promote diversity and inclusion in hiring and personnel decisions. The company was founded in San Francisco, California in 2016 by Elad Shmilovich, Guy Grinwald, and Ilit Raz. It was named in honor of Japanese mountain climber Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Mount Everest.
After winning investment capital from the Alabama Futures Fund as part of a $2.4 million round of funding in 2018 the company agreed to relocate its US headquarters offices to Birmingham. In January 2019 Raz, as CEO, moved with the company to the Pack Health Building on 12th Street North at 1st Avenue North. Joonko also opened a research and development office in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Joonko reported significant year-over-year growth with the increasing awareness of social justice issues led by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. The company included Accenture, Adidas, Atlassian, American Express, Crocs, Intuit, Nike, Northwestern Mutual, PayPal, and Regions Bank among its partners and customers in press releases. It also reported that its candidate rosters had swollen due to COVID-19 pandemic-related layoffs in 2021. Vertex Ventures Israel led a $10 million funding round for Joonko in August of that year. Joonko's Birmingham office closed around the same time that a New York City office was opened in late 2021.
The company raised $25 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners of New York City in September 2022. In November the company employed 36 people in New York and Tel Aviv.
Raz resigned from the company amid fraud allegations in July 2023. The New York Post contacted some of Joonko's claimed customers and received denials from Accenture, American Express, Atlassian, and PayPal that they had ever had any business relationships with Joonko. The company's website was taken down shortly after the Post made inquiries.
References
- Patchen, Tyler (December 19, 2018) "San Francisco-based startup relocates to Birmingham after securing investment from AFF." Birmingham Business Journal
- Patchen, Tyler (April 30, 2021) "Powered by the Pandemic" Birmingham Business Journal
- Patchen, Tyler (August 10, 2021) "Local tech company Joonko closes $10M funding round." Birmingham Business Journal
- Butkovic, Marija (September 13, 2022) "Joonko Raises $25 Million In Series B To Empower Businesses To Hire Underrepresented Candidates." Forbes.
- Wrobel, Sharon (June 26, 2023) "CEO of Israeli-founded AI recruitment startup hit with fraud allegations." The Times of Israel
- Orbach, Meir (June 27, 2023) "How did the CEO of Insight Partners-backed startup Joonko raise $38 million with false figures?" Calcalist Tech
- Barrabi, Thomas (June 29, 2023) "Joonko seemingly lied about working with American Express, PayPal, Accenture." New York Post