The Innovation Fund Continues to Recruit Impactful Start-Ups
[McKinney, TX] HBCU HUB, the company that produced the world’s first mobile app that connect students to admission recruiters at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) all over the country, has relocated from Carson, California to McKinney, Texas. At the core, the company is a data management firm that bridges digital and physical communication efforts through automated systems. This allows more data-drive decision making on behalf of universities and students alike.
The company is led by technical founder and former IBM application development specialist, Jonathan Swindell. Jonathan has built an extremely impressive team with multiple PhDs on staff and advisors that have experience in the HBCU space, as well as technical members from Microsoft and IBM. The team has over 40 years of experience within the higher education field, and they continue to leverage that expertise as they build out their market segments. The strong team members of this company are Jeff Wiafe, Jena Brown, Dr. Angela N. Mauldin, Jessica Brown, James Gilmer, Yimara McCartney-Ross, Antoinette Anderson, Breahna Sutton, Cameron McGlothen, Dr.Darrius Brooks, Keith Shannon and Jonathan Swindell.
“At the core, HBCU HUB is a collective of current and former HBCU students. Being the brainchild of Grambling State University’s 1st Annual Idea Competition, our passion is born from the culture and knowledge you gain by attending an HBCU.” Co-Founder and CEO Jonathan Swindell stated, “We will continue to serve our community with innovative solutions while passing the torch to each coming generation. Everything we offer is at no cost to incoming students because our mission is to build technology that closes the opportunity gap. “
Jonathan identified a market problem, that management of data has become a headache for universities and colleges, especially managing the high volume of incoming contact requests that HBCUs experience. Countless college expo applications get lost in the shuffle year after year which costs schools not only money but the loss of high quality recruits. HBCU HUB created a custom built digital architecture that has multiple data inputs but consolidates it into a backend for school administrators allowing them to filter data and follow up with students seamlessly in the HBCU HUB Application. Effectively, it is the first HBCU Matchmaker.
Since 2018 HBCU HUB has closed over $100k of data management sales with the application having been used in over 80 countries around the world. The app is constantly on the top educational apps in the Apple App Store. The Company generates revenue from the software packages they sell to clients but also from “Insights-As-A-Sevice”, providing high quality data analytics as a service to customers.
“We are very excited to make the transition from California to McKinney, TX. There are no HBCUs in California, the closest one to us was in Texas so this move comes at a great time for our organization as we are now closer to our end users.” Jonathan said, “Furthermore, this relocation allows us to visit client schools as we train staff on the new version of our application that is soon to be released. We look forward to having a positive impact within McKinney as we will be sourcing local talent as we continue to build technology that closes the opportunity gap.”
The MEDC has strategically focused its efforts on the technology and innovation economies by releasing their Innovation Fund in 2020. The fund assists technology start ups in achieving their growth goals.
“HBCU HUB is a very impressive application, but more importantly, Jonathan and his team are very impressive people. Jonathan’s technical experience and infectious personality paired with his team and advisors experience and business acumen makes for a great company to add to the McKinney technology ecosystem.” Director of Technology & Research Mike DePaola said, “Additionally, I would be remised if I didn’t recognize their completion of Impact Ventures accelerator. They are now the third company that we have worked with through Impact Ventures and we’re so happy to be able to partner with them on providing social impact start-ups a place to grow.”
HBCU HUB has relocated to the Regus co-worker space in Craig Ranch and is one of the many tech companies that have recently announced their expansion or relocation into McKinney via the Innovation Fund; other startups like Invene, Spatial Laser & Robin Autopilot also recently opened headquarters in the city.
MEDC’s Innovation Fund was created with startups like HBCU HUB in mind. The mission is to spur and accelerate innovation-focused companies’ growth at various levels of revenue and funding stages during the startup life cycle. It is designed to grow with the company as it scales, supplementing growth during the timeliest need in the startup lifecycle, seed or few customers, to Series A and or a more extensive customer base.
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About HBCU HUB
HBCU HUB is the world’s first app to connect students to admission recruiters at HBCUs! We are here to help high school students apply, prepare, and get accepted by their dream HBCU. We passionately believe in service, legacy, and unapologetically doing it for the culture. We also believe that it takes proper education for our youth to make a change in this world!
About McKinney Economic Development Corporation
The McKinney Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) leads, directs, and coordinates the broad-based expansion of the city’s business tax base. It promotes sustainable job growth, thereby continuously enhancing the citizens’ quality of life McKinney area.
For more information, visit uniquemckinney.com.
Directory:
- To find out more about The Innovation Fund and apply for the Innovation Fund visit https://uniquemckinney.com/innovation-fund/
- Email: info@hbcuhub.us; Website: hbcuhub.us
- mdepaola@mckinneyedc.com – Director of Technology and Research for MEDC
- lgajary@mckinneyedc.com – Marketing Manager for MEDC
