The American lawyer and writer MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, with an estimated fortune of more than $55 billion dollars, donated a $4 million dollar grant to Laboratoria, a peruvian edtech.
After a rigorous evaluation process, where Laboratoria’s impact model was analyzed in depth, Scott, who was involved in the early stages of the creation of Amazon and is the ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, decided to support the organization led by Mariana Costa Checa, a Peruvian social entrepreneur who has been recognized by Barack Obama and MIT as one of the most innovative Latin American entrepreneurs.
Laboratoria was founded in 2014 with the aim of empowering women to start a career in tech. This is a sector where 48% of vacancies cannot be filled due to a lack of professionals and, as a result of deep gender stereotypes and other barriers, women have remained a minority.
“Receiving this grant is a huge recognition and boost to our impact. We are at a time where we are poised to scale significantly and be able to reach many more women in every corner of Latin America.”
Said Karen Kelly, Director of Partnerships at Laboratoria.
Taking advantage of this market demand, Laboratoria works to support women in Latin America to develop a professional career in tech. to By the end of 2022, more than 3,000 women will have been trained in Laboratoria’s bootcamp, which has high employability rates.
With this fresh funding, Laboratoria can invest the funds in the way it considers most appropriate and strategic to boost its growth. The edtech has already trained almost 3,000 women and employed, in the last two years, more than 85% of its graduates in different companies in the region, including technology giants like Globant and Mercado Libre, which caught the attention of Scott.
In 2019, MacKenzie Scott pledged to give away all of her money and so far, she has already donated to various institutions around the world, including organizations that support women’s rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and fight climate change and racial inequalities.