JFFVentures Economic Mobility Fund I

The U.S. labor market is failing millions of low- to middle-income earners. Over 70 million Americans, disproportionately women, immigrants, and people of color remain stuck in low-wage work with limited pathways to economic advancement. While the future of work is rapidly shifting due to automation, AI, and new employment models, public systems and traditional financial tools have not kept pace with the needs of this population.

The result is a widening economic divide: workers are increasingly under-skilled, underpaid, and under-protected. At the same time, employers struggle to hire, upskill, and retain a frontline and middle-skill workforce. This disconnect is not just a moral challenge, it represents a massive untapped market opportunity in workforce innovation, financial technology, and education.

JFFVentures was created to address this systemic failure. We invest in early-stage companies that are building tech-enabled solutions to close gaps in education, employment, benefits access, and financial resilience. Our portfolio companies serve populations historically left out of traditional venture capital attention but central to the health of the American economy.

By targeting this intersection of social need and market opportunity, we aim to generate both measurable impact and market-rate financial returns proving that inclusive innovation is investable at scale.

JFFVentures is a market-rate venture fund investing in early-stage, tech-enabled companies that advance economic mobility for low- to middle-income earners in the U.S. Our solution is grounded in the belief that equitable access to education, employment, financial tools, and benefits is not only a moral imperative but also a major market opportunity.

Solution:

We back startups at the intersection of learning, work, and financial resilience, the “learn-to-earn” ecosystem. These include innovations in AI-powered upskilling and reskilling for youth and adult learners, labor marketplaces for frontline workers, fintech tools and access to benefits for gig economy earners, and infrastructure for small business owners and solopreneurs.

Approach:

• Market-Rate Returns with Impact Discipline: We operate with the same financial rigor as any early-stage venture fund, targeting outsized returns while applying an explicit impact lens to deal sourcing, diligence, and post-investment support.

• Strategic LP & Ecosystem Network: We’ve raised $25M of our $50M target from a diverse set of institutional LPs including the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Workday Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, ECMC Foundation, Kapor Foundation, American Student Assistance and Strada Education. Many of these partners provide strategic insight, policy leverage, and scaling channels.

• Unique Edge Through JFF Partnership: Our key differentiator is our embedded relationship with Jobs for the Future (JFF), a 40-year-old national nonprofit with deep networks across employers, training providers, and public systems. Through this, we unlock distribution channels, employer adoption, higher ed networks and policy-informed scale for our portfolio companies.

Methodology:

We apply a dual lens of commercial potential and measurable impact at every stage:

• Sourcing: We tap into accelerators, university labs, and founder communities focused on underserved populations while building our own AI tools to manage the vast external sourcing networks.

• Diligence: We evaluate not only product-market fit and team strength, but also potential to serve low-income workers, immigrants, or overlooked small businesses.

• Post-Investment: We help founders navigate policy shifts, partner with employers and higher ed institutions, integrate into training ecosystems, and report on both growth metrics and impact outcomes.

Our methodology ensures that companies aren’t just doing good, they’re scaling sustainably and competitively in markets that matter.

JFFVentures is in its early stages of deploying capital from its Economic Mobility Fund I, but we have already demonstrated strong early outcomes across both financial traction and social impact:

Six Investments Completed To Date

Backed 5 early-stage companies focused on:

• AI-powered language and GED tutoring for immigrant learners - serving 100K learners in 250+ through partnership with Pearson GED

• Back-office automation and benefits access for solopreneurs - developed 21 partnerships to date to access 75K+ solopreneurs

• AI assistants for main street small business owners - Doggy day care, Salons, HVAC - 275% increase in active users since June 2025

• AI- Literacy and tools for higher ed institutions - 26K active users and over 50 education partners

• AI-enhanced college access and career pathways -Over 60k+ students served on platform to date; over 66% from low-income backgrounds
  Each company is aligned with our thesis of driving scalable economic mobility.

Deep Ecosystem Integration

Our portfolio companies benefit from access to Jobs for the Future (JFF)’s extensive network of employers, training providers, and policy partners resulting in pilot programs, strategic customers, and system-level insights that accelerate adoption and scale. We partner with JFF to offer access to experts as well as integrate companies in projects and programs to pilot new impactful solutions.

Validated Demand Across Sectors

Companies in our portfolio have secured major design partners and early enterprise customers including community colleges, public systems, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 employers demonstrating strong product-market fit and commercial potential in traditionally overlooked markets.

Diverse Founder Base

80% of our portfolio companies are led by founders from backgrounds that are underrepresented in ventures capital, women, people of color, and immigrants, aligning with our broader mission of shifting who builds, who benefits, and who gets funded.