Innovation & diversity: The Diversity Movement raises its profile in fundraise drive

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RALEIGH – The Diversity Movement, a provider of a suite of employee experience products focused on improving diversity, equity, and inclusion at businesses and organizations, is in the process of raising capital.

How much?

According to an SEC filing, the company has already raised $787,000 from 10 investors, including Durham-based Resilient Ventures, as reported by WRAL TechWire.

But the company continues to raise capital, and is targeting $1.5 million in this round, Bob Batchelor, the company’s director of public relations and publications, tells WRAL TechWire.

“We have soft commitments for additional funds and are halfway to our overall goal,” said Batchelor. Other than Resilient Ventures, the company has not disclosed any of its other investors who have already participated in the current fundraising round.

The firm, founded by Donald Thompson in 2019, who became the company’s full-time CEO in May 2021. At that time, Thompson and the company cited meteoric growth, noting that “in under two years, we have been able to move from concept to commercial business during a pandemic and impact over 110,000 people with the work we’re doing,” in a weekly column written for WRAL TechWire in early 2021.

Thompson remains a regular contributor for WRAL TechWire.

Durham’s Resilient Ventures invests in Raleigh startup The Diversity Movement

From bootstrapped company to product-led growth

“The Diversity Movement bootstrapped its way to 100-plus clients, so the funding enables us to invest in and build out our very specific product line based on a platform, fixed-price approach that helps our clients scale DEI learning across the enterprise,” Thompson told WRAL TechWire this week.

And the funding will enable the company to add additional products to its existing engagement platform, Thompson noted.

“The funding powers our transition to a product-led, data-driven company based on affordable subscription models that scale digital learning, coaching, and analytics for organizations of all sizes,” said Thompson.

Existing products include the firm’s DEI Navigator, built primarily for small- and mid-sized businesses, according to Thompson, as well as MicroVideos by The Diversity Movement, which Thompson described to WRAL TechWire as “a kind of Netflix for DEI learning.”

Another benefit to bringing in a round of venture capital, said Thompson, is that it will enable the company to expand its marketing efforts nationally. Before transitioning to a full-time CEO at The Diversity Movement, Thompson served as the CEO of Walk West, a North Carolina-based digital agency. Thompson remains on the board of directors for Walk West.

“Investors are seeing what our clients have experienced: that tying DEI programming to bottom-line results has real world benefits,” said Thompson.

One partner for the company: the North Carolina Technology Association, NC TECH, which worked with The Diversity Movement and Racepoint Global on a DEI benchmarking effort for the state’s tech sector, which was announced earlier this year.