Greenwood, the digital banking platform for Black and Latino individuals and business owners, has announced the acquisition of Valence, the leading platform that connects, showcases, and empowers the Black professional community through their recruitment and professional development products. This acquisition will provide Greenwood’s community of nearly one million Black professionals with access to tens of thousands of job listings and career opportunities through the Valence Pipeline recruiting database. This will also help companies diversify their workforces at every level, from early career to C-suite.
“Combining our financial content with the professional advice and support Valence provides means that Greenwood members will have an invaluable set of tools in their tool kit”
Valence was founded in 2019 by Kobie Fuller, Chairman of Valence and General Partner at Upfront Ventures, and also Emily Slade and LaMer Walker to create a centralized community network of Black professionals and easily create a pipeline for companies to find outstanding Black talent. Valence plays a key role in connecting the innovation economy to the Black community and specifically addressing the lack of diversity in leadership in high paying industries such as finance and technology. Valence has raised over $7 million from investors such as GGV Capital and Upfront Ventures.
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“We’re being very targeted in how we can drive economic opportunity and wealth creation in the Black community,” said Mr. Fuller. “Joining with Greenwood is a commitment to our community and accelerates our mission towards creating new paths to success for Black professionals and fuels our efforts towards closing the racial wealth gap.”
“Emerging Black leaders continue to face enormous challenges navigating career development and advancement, while companies and leadership struggle to attract and retain Black talent in their executive ranks,” said Guy Primus, CEO of Valence. “Valence provides a platform for executives, employers and Black business leaders to take meaningful steps to accelerate Black representation in the C-suite and drive positive change in corporate America.”
As a result of this acquisition, Mr. Fuller will join the advisory board of Greenwood. Mr. Primus will continue in the role as CEO of Valence, in addition to being named as a Vice President at Greenwood.