Fresno’s Bitwise gets largest investment to date – $80 million – to fund its expansion

Bitwise Industries, the Fresno-based technology training and entrepreneurship hub, will use an $80 million infusion of cash from investors to expand not only its geographic footprint across the U.S., but also bolster the array of services its offering for businesses in the cities where it operates.

Chicago will become the largest city in which Bitwise will develop one of its campuses, which serve as locations where small technology businesses can lease space to operate, students can receive training in software coding and website design, and where technologists can assist businesses with technology solutions. Bitwise announced its expansion plan Tuesday.

The expansion is being enabled by $80 million that Bitwise raised from investors including the Kapor Center, The Motley Fool, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Citibank. It is the largest one-time investment that Bitwise has received in its 10-year history.

“This will fund growth in Fresno and all of our other cities,” Bitwise Fresno vice president Thilani Grubel told The Fresno Bee in an interview. “It’s incredible that we have investors like these, the tier of investors that they are given all of the recent layoffs in the technology industry.”

Similar community needs

Bitwise has already identified a 6,000-square-foot building on Chicago’s South Side as a temporary base of its operations as it seeks a permanent space.

“When you look at the demographics and the economic needs (in Chicago’s Greater Grand Crossing community) it’s similar to Fresno,” Grubel said. “It’s a city with a ton of potential and not enough investment to build a technology economy there.”

By enabling diverse demographic segments such as women and people of color to receive training and find work in a technology industry where they have historically been underrepresented, Bitwise “has been an agent of transformation for cities and people alike,” said Jake Soberal, the company’s co-CEO and co-founder.

The investment by Goldman Sachs Asset Management is part of the company’s One Million Black Women initiative, aimed at job creation and advancement opportunities for Black women.

“Goldman Sachs believes that Bitwise has shown a strong track record in training and upskilling talent to successfully find placement in the highly competitive technology labor market,” said Hillel Moerman, a parther in the firm’s growth equity business.

“Filling the talent gaps is not only pertinent for the sector, but also key to creating economic opportunity for those in underserved communities,” Moerman added, “and we are excited to support Bitwise in its continued growth.”

The temporary Chicago location will operate in collaboration with the nearby Comer Education Campus. “Bitwise has a track record of removing barriers that have prevented talented individuals from securing quality jobs in one of the fastest growing industries in the world,” said Comer Science & Education Foundation president Greg Mooney. “These are high-growth, high-wage jobs that enable companies, schools and local residents to succeed in the digital economy.”

Driving diversity in technology

The Kapor Center, already a partner with Bitwise in Oakland, and Kapor Capital, a continuing investor in Bitwise, also praised the company’s efforts to increase diverse participation in the technology industry and to provide tech services to businesses in underserved communities.

The latest investment and the expansion to Chicago “speaks to the validity of our model,” Grubel told The Bee. “We’ve been able to do it in Fresno for 10 years and we’re doing it in our other cities” in California and the U.S.

Grubel added that Bitwise has supported the creation of more than 15,000 technology jobs in Fresno, not only through its own hiring of students who go through its training and apprenticeship programs, but also providing a pipeline of qualified talent for local companies. The effect, she said, adds up to aggregated wages of more than $250 million and an increase of more than 1% in the city’s gross domestic product – a measure of the value of goods and services produced in a community.

In addition to its three campuses in downtown Fresno, Bitwise operates California locations in Oakland, Bakersfield and Merced. Over the past couple of years the company has also opened campuses in Greeley, Colorado; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Buffalo, New York; Toledo, Ohio; El Paso, Texas; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.