Bitwise Industries Announces Five-State National Expansion, Investing Millions Toward Solving Generational Poverty

FRESNO, Calif., March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Bitwise Industries (www.bitwiseindustries.com) announced massive nationwide expansion, adding locations in five new states: New York, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. This rapid growth further validates Bitwise Industries' proven model of providing pathways into the technology industry for people coming from stories of poverty and/or exclusion. After raising over $100M in venture capital, Bitwise is now located in 10 cities across the country which include the California cities of: Fresno, Bakersfield, Merced, Oakland, Toledo, OH, Buffalo, NY, El Paso, TX, Greeley, CO, Las Cruces, NM, and Cheyenne, WY.

"We started Bitwise Industries nearly a decade ago with the hope of helping our local community and since then, Bitwise has positively impacted thousands of lives, driven economic growth in underestimated cities, and is creating the tech workforce of the future," said Jake Soberal, CEO and co-founder, Bitwise Industries. "Our goal is to bring our proven, repeatable approach to as many communities and people as possible. What has been successful in our first five cities, will become part of these new regions' stories of how investing in underestimated people and places can create a more inclusive and representative economy." 

Bitwise Industries uses its unique two-sided marketplace approach to drive outcomes and growth. The company teaches people the skills they need to access opportunities in the tech economy–ranging from Salesforce administration to web development–and hires many of those trainees to build enterprise technology solutions for customers as a part of Bitwise Technology Consulting.

As such, training drives both individual transformation for the trainee and commercial scale for Bitwise. Customers and partners can work with Bitwise in purchasing talent pipelines or technology solutions. Bitwise surrounds students and companies with inspiring technology hubs in Bitwise cities, supportive amenities, and programming. Trainees have access to a robust set of non-technical resources like counseling, transportation, and childcare.

Today Bitwise operates one of the largest federally accredited apprenticeship programs in the country, which enables it to pay Bitwise apprentices to learn. It has trained over 8,000 non-traditional tech students in its Workforce Training program, with 80 percent of job seekers going on to earn technical employment. This accounts for  $295M in aggregate wages being paid to mostly women and people of color. The average student enters our program making less than $20,000 a year and upon exit goes on to positions that make more than $60,000 a year.

On the heels of Bitwise's Series B announcement in 2021, the company has doubled in size, doubled in revenue, and hit record numbers in individuals enrolled in their Workforce Training programs. Through its Enterprise Technology Consulting, Bitwise builds demand for digital solutions and develops custom software for local organizations, while bringing thousands of jobs to each expansion city that supports the training of a new fleet of diverse tech workers.

"As we expand across the country we look forward to supercharging our efforts with the cities we currently serve and getting started in new communities," said Irma Olguin Jr., CEO and co-founder, Bitwise Industries. "Bitwise is a vehicle that has transformed lives, and cities. We look forward to helping more people left out of the digital economy to find financial independence and stability through increased employment opportunities, while bringing government digital infrastructure into the modern era with world-class software developed by the overlooked people we train and hire."

In each city that it serves, Bitwise renovates blighted historical buildings, creates a technology hub and houses its operations at the city's urban core to bring back life to the area. The company has already transformed a combined total of nearly a million square feet of downtown commercial space and will continue to do the same in new cities.

"With this expansion, the demonstrated impact of Bitwise Industries can now be shared with millions more underrepresented people across the country," said Mitchell Kapor, Partner at Kapor Capital. "Bitwise is expanding economic opportunities to reach the most vulnerable by creating accessible and attainable pathways to quality jobs."

"What began as the Founders' dream to encourage and train underrepresented people in their hometown of Fresno, CA for jobs in the ever growing tech economy Bitwise Industries, has blossomed into a unique and proven scalable model," said Paula Pretlow, Independent Board Director at Bitwise Industries. "Bitwise is truly making a difference, not only in the lives of those who are gaining skills and employment in tech, but also in the cities where it operates and arguably, the nation as a whole."

Bitwise Industries is supported by an outstanding roster of investors that include: Kapor Capital, Motley Fool Ventures, JP Morgan, ZOMA Capital, Candide Group, Gingerbread Capital, Promedica, M&T Bank, 43North Foundation, Acumen America, and the New Voices Fund.

About Bitwise Industries
Bitwise Industries creates a bridge between humans from marginalized communities and stories of systemic poverty to skills and resources necessary to access opportunities in the tech industry. By leveraging public-private partnerships, Bitwise provides paid apprenticeships to students to learn tech skills, connects them to meaningful tech opportunities, and builds vibrant buildings in underestimated cities to house their work. By upskilling disenfranchised humans, it empowers them to change their own lives—which ignites and transforms the regional economies of the cities in which Bitwise serves.

Bitwise has raised more than $100M in support of this important work; expanded its model to serve ten cities (California cities: Fresno, Bakersfield, Merced, and Oakland, Toledo, OH, Buffalo, NY, El Paso, TX, Greeley, CO, Las Cruces, NM, and Cheyenne, WY); and built a tech apprenticeship engine that will drive national jobs/economic recovery in 2022. To learn more about Bitwise Industries, check out www.bitwiseindustries.com.

SOURCE Bitwise Industries

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