While working on their MBAS at Harvard Business School, Colombian immigrants Stephanie Murra and Lorenza Vélez He noticed that most cafeteria workers were Spanish. In talks with them, a common issue continued to come: how difficult it was for people who legally moved to the US from Spanish -speaking countries to find their first jobs in the United States. We don’t speak English well or at all, it wasn’t amazing, it was the biggest challenge.
“But then we look at the news and see that the US is really facing an unprecedented lack of laborEspecially for these types of positions where you will usually see low -skilled immigrant immigrants, “Murra told TechCrunch in an interview.” So we were like, “Okay, there’s definitely an issue here.”
The roommates began to research and realized that many potential employers would use traditional labor tables such as, which “is not intended for Spanish immigrants,” Murra said.
“These workers, many of whom do not speak English and are not really good with technology, are used to find jobs through friends,” he explained. In addition, they are often confused with electronic applications and intimidated by the idea of someone who consults them in English.
The idea for Industrious He was born. The twin-who had previously worked for two years on the Colombian Fintech Addi-founded the Miami-based company in April 2023 during the final semester at Harvard.
“Employers in hospitality, construction, retail and other blue collar industries are really struggling to fill hourly roles, while millions of authorized Spanish immigrants are struggling to find stable jobs due to linguistic and cultural barriers,” Vélez said.
“We know where to find workers, talk their language and contact them through their preferred channel, Whatsapp. So we built the Ponte to bridge this gap,” Vélez added.
The founders argue that their recruitment platform pre-cakes, races and boards legally authorized hourly workers “faster and more effectively than traditional methods”.
Employees are hired directly by employers and not through staffing agencies, who say not only save money, but gives them a larger group of possible employees to choose. On the other hand, “employees gain access to incredible employment opportunities that are difficult for them to have different access,” Vélez added.
Ponte works only with documented immigrants: each candidate is pre-visited for legal work permit before reaching an employer.
The start has set up an AI Recruiter employee that the pre-bits through WhatsApp and Voice Based AI interviews. At present, it only focuses on the hospitality industry, but plans to expand into other areas, such as construction or elderly care in the future.
Rapid growth
Ponte has been steadily developed since Murra and Vélez officially started the platform in November 2023, boarding over 60,000 candidates and placing nearly 800 hosting roles. Annual net revenue increased from $ 70,000 in February 2024 to $ 550,000 today. It is not yet profitable, but the couple says they are operating with a high contract, so their model is more scaled. To date, they say they have been burned by less than $ 1 million.
Today, Ponte works with 14 employers using its platform to hire employees, such as Omni Hotels & Resorts, as well as large hotel management companies such as Pyramid Global, Peachtree Hotel Group and Atrium.
The start recently set a $ 3 million seed round, led by Harlem Capital with $ 15 million, he told Techcrunch exclusively. Better Tomorrow Ventures, 81 collection and Wischoff Ventures also participated in funding. Ponte has previously set another $ 1.5 million combined with The Better Tomorrow Ventures the Mint Accelerator, NFX’s fast competition and 81 collection.
The company’s revenue model is based on success. Ponte charges a monthly fee equivalent to 10% of an employee’s monthly salary for up to 12 months. Because it is a high turnover industry, if the employee leaves in the first month, the hotel pays nothing.
Currently, the start has 15 full -time employees.
Because social media and Ponte’s recruitment channels are in Spanish, over 95% of its candidates are Spanish immigrants, Murra noted. In addition to using WhatsApp, it also places ads on Facebook and Instagram.
“This focus has helped us build deeply confidence in the community and adapt our approach to their specific needs,” he said. “But we build tools that are linguistic-consensual and could easily adapt to serve other immigrant communities, including Portuguese Brazilians, in the future.”
And, he added, the start has even supported English speakers who found Ponte, who was named after the word in Portuguese which means “bridge”.
Looking forward, the founders say Ponte’s goal is to “create a place to help Spanish immigrants in the US achieve their professional goals”.
“So it’s not just to help them find a job at the entry level. We also want to help them grow up in these jobs,” Vélez said. “We see one of the greatest opportunities to help candidates learn English, because there are stuck between where they are now and getting a promotion for their next job.”
Henri Pierre-Jacques, chief executive of Harlem Capital, said he had attended the founders from Ponte’s pre-spaties.
“I really liked that Lorenza and Stephanie were former colleagues in Addi … and then HBS together before they started the Ponte,” he told TechCrunch. “We received very positive references from customers who ran for their product. They managed to see a strong attraction in a little while, it was obvious that Stephanie and Lorenza could do a lot with very little.”
Pierre-Jacques also believes that Ponte’s focus on Spanish hosting workers is “a huge differentiate”.
Indeed, Spanish represented almost halfor 47.6%of the workforce born abroad in 2023 in the US, according to the US Department of Labor.
“With talent purchases we always think about how our founders manage the offer,” he said. “We have seen the power of Whatsapp within this community and Stephanie and Lorenza understood the integration of the recruitment work flow through Whatsapp was the best channel to find their employees.”
