Kura Labs Accelerates Growth With Donation From MacKenzie Scott

Funding Will Contribute to the Expansion of Free Training and Job Placement For Underserved Communities Across Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps, Data Engineering, AI Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity

NEW YORK, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Kura Labs, a leading cloud infrastructure computing training and job placement non-profit academy for underserved communities, today announced a donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

Kura Labs will use this funding to incorporate AI Infrastructure Engineering and Cybersecurity into its highly successful advanced training across Cloud infrastructure, DevOps/SRE, and DataOps/Data Engineering. Additionally, this donation will support Kura Labs' enterprise partnerships expansion and advanced training across academic institutions including community colleges, four year colleges and universities, vocational schools, and high schools. Kura Labs will work to grow its Fortune 1000 employer network that already includes NASDAQ, Morgan Stanley, Draft Kings, Bloomberg, and S&P Global.

"Securing this donation is a testament to the remarkable opportunity that Kura Labs has created for individuals that are traditionally locked out of the innovation economy, by generating millions in new wages in such a short period of time," said Sheldon Gilbert, Founder and CEO of Kura Labs. "This funding will help Kura Labs to continue to serve as a vital training partner for companies that are looking to remain competitive in the 21st century economy, by tapping into the deep and often overlooked reservoirs of engineering talent from Appalachia to urban centers to Indigenous reservations. We have proven that we can generate a competitive industrial workforce that can provide sustained economic opportunity and mobility for our communities."

In less than four years, Kura Labs will have generated over $12 million in new wages, having trained and placed nearly 100 Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps, SRE, and Data Engineers at leading Fortune 1000 companies—achieving a 85% placement rate—including NASDAQ, Morgan Stanley, Draft Kings, Bloomberg, S&P Global, CapitalOne, and Oracle Cloud. With average starting salaries of $100,000, Kura Labs has provided significant economic mobility - after six months of free training - for individuals that were previously unemployed or underemployed and often plagued with intractable student debt.

Kura Labs has experienced early success as a result of its unique training model, that is focused on understanding the fundamental problems that businesses and commercial enterprises are trying to solve, and the effective application of various technologies in driving critical solutions. From building dynamically scaling computing infrastructure in response to unforeseen surges in online consumer traffic due to fluctuations in weather, to ensuring that low-latency trading systems across global financial markets remain resilient to cyberattacks, Kura Lab's future-ready training ensures that tomorrow's engineers are well-versed in business-centric solution architecture.

Given the increased rate of technological innovation driving the global economy, catalyzed by the rise of generative AI, Kura Labs' "industrial solution-architecting" training model will be vital to building next-generation digital infrastructure engineering workforce pipelines across all sectors including finance, genomics, education, telecommunications, transportation, agriculture, and logistics.

Please visit here to learn more about Kura Labs' impact.

About Kura Labs

Distressed by the shortage of cloud engineers and deeply concerned about the growing wealth gap, technology entrepreneur Sheldon Gilbert launched Kura Labs to address this workforce and economic imbalance.

Kura Labs provides free training and job placement services in cloud infrastructure computing - which is experiencing massive growth, creating millions of new jobs, and reshaping the technology landscape - and across a broad range of specialized fields, including DevOps, SRE, DataOps, Data Engineering, Cybersecurity, and AI Infrastructure Engineering. Kura Labs' efficacy stems from its vast network of employers and unique focus on deep exploration of the vast array of real-world problems and challenges facing businesses and enterprises, and developing optimal solutions based on various technological tools/applications.

Since launching in 2020, Kura Labs has trained and selectively placed nearly 100 engineers, many of whom come from households with $30,000 in combined annual income. These engineers now earn average starting salaries of $100,000 at leading Fortune 1000 companies and venture-backed startups - Kura Labs has achieved a 85% placement rate - including Morgan Stanley, NASDAQ, S&P Global, Draft Kings, Bloomberg, Oracle, AWS, Capital One, JP Morgan Chase, Live Nation, and Meroxa.

This has resulted in immediate and meaningful economic mobility that will generate over $12M in cumulative new wages by the end of 2024. Wages are on pace to exceed $90M by the end of the decade.

SOURCE Kura Labs