News Briefs: HerCampus Acquires College Fashionista, Nudge Reward Raises $9 Million

Acquisitions

College Fashionista

Her Campus Media, a media brand for college women and 360-degree college marketing agency, announced that it has acquired College Fashionista, a leading college-focused media company and digital community of college-aged fashion and beauty influencers, from its founders Amy Levin Klein and Melissa Levin. The deal will enable Her Campus to further strengthen its reach and ownership of the college audience, as it will be maintaining College Fashionista as its own property and brand under the Her Campus Media parent company. 

College Fashionista Founder Amy Levin Klein will be staying on to consult. Executive Director Melissa Levin will be joining Her Campus Media fulltime as its VP, Business Strategy and Legal Affairs to help oversee the entire brand portfolio strategy and business operations.

“College Fashionista’s mission of helping young women gain the skills and experience they need while in school in order to launch their careers is kindred to our own, and we have long admired the incredible brand and community that Amy and Melissa have built and fostered,” said Stephanie Kaplan Lewis, Her Campus Media’s Co-founder & CEO. “We’re thrilled to be bringing College Fashionista into the Her Campus Media family so we can continue to serve and support college women and equip them to own their futures and live out their ambitions.”

With an eye toward a more equitable recruiting landscape for all, AI-powered job matching platform Job.com has hired Laurie Boschini as its new Head of Research & Development to actively work to remove unconscious gender bias in the company’s job matching engine. 

“I’ve worked over fifteen years in this industry as a woman, I’m well aware of the ways in which our progress is made more difficult by both overt and unconscious discrimination. Whether it be assumptions about our abilities or having to work twice as hard our male colleagues to get the same recognition, the clear differences along gender lines are still an underspoken problem in tech,” says Boschini. “I’m happy to be in a leadership position that will work to dismantle gender bias in tech and open the door for so many other women behind me.”

Fundraising

Nudge Rewards raises $9.3 million

Nudge Rewards announced that it has closed a $9.3 million (USD) growth round led by Chicago-based Jump Capital, with support from existing investors, to continue helping leading brands mobilize their frontline. Nudge has also announced that Michael McMahon, Managing Partner at Jump Capital, will join the Company’s board of directors.

In addition to scaling go-to-market capacity, the funding will be put toward growing the Data Science team in order to advance innovation within the emerging category of employee experience management, driven by predictive insights into frontline team performance that directly correlate to business outcomes, such as profitability and retention. By investing in machine learning and AI, Nudge is empowering customers to drive continual KPI improvement, with powerful recommendations enabling data-driven decision making.  

Nudge is one of the leading mobile-first solutions in frontline employee communication for experience-driven brands, empowering retail store associates and restaurant/hospitality staff to better deliver on the brand’s promise. The company has seen demand rise rapidly over the past three years, as brands increasingly realize the need for an effective way to influence and inspire their frontline as a means of solving inconsistent execution and performance. In the past year, Nudge has increased headcount by more than 40 percent and grown revenue by nearly 200 percent.

“Today’s announcement validates the increasing demand from world-class brands for a more effective way of connecting with their frontline employees. We’re thrilled to have the backing of Jump Capital as we enter our next phase of growth,” said Lindsey Goodchild, CEO and Founder, Nudge Rewards. “Jump shares our passion for digital transformation of an underserved workforce and being at the forefront of innovation in employee experience data across our key industries.”

Awards

March of Dimes

March of Dimes will present world-renowned chef Dominique Crenn with the 2019 MOD ICON Award for her culinary excellence and her relentless push for innovation, sustainability and equality at the Signature Chefs Auction, L.A.’s premier charity tasting event. The philanthropic evening will take place on Oct. 17 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills.  Culinary celebrities Brooke Williamson, Timothy Hollingsworth, Aarti Sequeira and Nancy Silverton, the 2018 March of Dimes ICON Award honoree, are joining forces with more than 12 local master chefs to raise critical funds to benefit the March of Dimes’ mission to lead the fight for the health of all moms and babies. Tony Hale, Emmy-award winning actor who plays Forky in “Toy Story 4,” will host the evening.

Crenn is the co-owner and chef of the three-Michelin-starred restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. Crenn was featured on the second season of the popular Netflix series “Chef’s Table,” and  is one of the most acclaimed chefs in the United States; she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: West in 2018 and Best Female Chef in 2016 by World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards.

“I am so happy to support March of Dimes – an organization which drives innovation and works for equality to improve the health of moms and babies for more than 80 years,” Crenn said.