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Simba Jonga
Founder, Laborup
Company

Based in
Nashville, TN
Stage
Seed
Type
Founder
Simba Jonga is founder and CEO of Laborup, an AI-powered hiring platform he built to solve the skilled labor shortage in American manufacturing. He grew up in Tennessee and started his career as a chemical and biomolecular engineer in Southern industrial towns, later researching metal recovery methods at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Jonga earned an undergraduate degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a master's in operations research from Stanford, where he was a Knight-Hennessy Scholar. He relocated Laborup to Tennessee in 2025.
Company

Laborup
Laborup runs an AI-powered recruiting platform that matches vetted, skilled blue-collar workers with US manufacturers facing an industrial labor shortage.
Founded
2023
Raised
$7.7M
Stage
Seed
HQ
Nashville, TN
Investors
NC
NVP Capital
TC
Torch Capital
TV
Threshold Ventures
HV
Heartland Ventures
WEP
Westbound Equity Partners
JD
Jeff Dean
Investor data via Harmonic
In the News
Nov 15, 2025
Chattanooga Times Free Press
Tennessee-based app Laborup aims to get Chattanoogans high-paying factory jobs
Read
Aug 29, 2025
Nashville Business Journal
Startup relocates to Nashville, announces $7.7 million of funding
Read
Aug 28, 2025
Laborup
Laborup Raises $7.7M to Power America's Industrial Workforce
Read
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23:22:42:19
[ section ]
become a sponsor
All rights reserved
DIRTY JOBS SUMMIT 2026
[ DIRTY JOBS Starts in: ]
23:22:42:19
[ section ]
become a sponsor
All rights reserved
DIRTY JOBS SUMMIT 2026