Resolution Ventures invests in Ikigai Data

We’re pleased to welcome Ikigai Data to Resolution Ventures’ social investment portfolio as part of the Workertech Partnership. The Workertech Partnership is backing a new wave of innovators who will harness technology to improve the pay, prospects, power, and progression of low-paid workers.

Ikigai Data is a careers data and insights company that works with education and employment partners to help everyone find work that’s right for them. Its key product is JobFit: a SaaS platform for education institutions to track and advance alumni employment outcomes. Alumni outcomes data is then benchmarked against labour market standards. This way, education providers can estimate their ‘Returns on Education’ with data points such as job title, salary and other skills gained after leaving education.

The JobFit app for students and alumni helps them build a CV, identify technical and transferable skills, create bespoke competency-based career pathways, and apply for jobs and courses.

Ikigai Data’s main route to impact and market is through higher and further education institutions and the career support they offer students and alumni. Its unique data infrastructure is constantly updated with labour market insights in order to give careers advisors the most relevant intelligence on skill demand and job availability in the labour market enabling them to support their students.

Taking a broader view on impact, Ikigai Data can tackle the disruption for young people and work created by the pandemic. Research from the Resolution Foundation found that the pre-pandemic structure of the UK labour market left younger generations substantially more exposed to the economic shocks of lockdowns and social distancing. Furthermore, we found that young people are at higher risk of long term pay scarring caused by extended periods of worklessness caused by the pandemic.

Timely information on relevant skill demand and job vacancies will be essential in helping to minimise this risk and support college leavers and alumni into suitable jobs that also offer good pay and opportunities for progression.

Gaia Fasso, Founder and CEO said ‘We are thrilled to join Resolution Venture’s portfolio of formidable founders and progressive ventures. We look forward to collaborating with the Resolution Foundation’s expert team as we continue building a fair and human future of work and continue to make strides in scaling profits alongside – and never without – purpose.’

Gaia is an impressive founder who has developed the business to date, partnering with a host of organisations to build and test features. At the Resolution Foundation we’re excited to bring our internal knowledge on labour market data, young people, skills and employment to the table along with the expertise of our WorkerTech partners to support her in getting thousands of people into better work.