BASTA
BASTA is a nonprofit tech organization that uses its AI-powered Seekr career navigation platform to help first-generation college students secure quality jobs. It partners with 300+ universities and employers like Bloomberg and Google across 45+ U.S. states.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersBrooklyn, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What BASTA does
BASTA (legal entity ARIZOU DBA BASTA, EIN 81-5268868) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2016 by Sheila Sarem and headquartered at 205 W 37th St, New York, with regional operations expanding into Philadelphia and the Carolinas. The organization addresses the persistent underemployment of first-generation college students (52% of bachelor's degree holders are underemployed one year post-graduation) by combining an AI-enabled career navigation platform with human coaching and employer partnerships. Its flagship product, Seekr, is a career assessment and matching tool built on 8 million data points collected from 76,000+ first-generation career journeys; complementary products include the Discovery platform (live workshops and analytics dashboards), the Basta Fellowship (an 11-week career readiness program), and the upcoming Job FitFinder browser extension.
The technology stack includes in-house recommendation and matching algorithms, generative AI for personalized career guidance, knowledge retrieval over the Seekr corpus, and predictive analytics surfaced through real-time partner dashboards. The platform serves 300+ campuses and nonprofit partners across 45+ U.S. states, with employer partners including Bloomberg LP, Google, BNY, Amazon, Oracle, EY, Blackstone LaunchPad, and others. BASTA employs approximately 20 staff spanning product, engineering, partnerships, marketing, and program delivery.
BASTA operates a hybrid revenue model: foundation grants are the primary funding source (disclosed grants include $4M from MacKenzie Scott in June 2024, $1.2M from The Leon Levine Foundation in February 2026, $800K from Carnegie Corporation of New York in April 2026, $600K from GreenLight Fund Philadelphia in March 2026, and unrestricted support from New Profit), supplemented by institutional subscription revenue from universities and nonprofits licensing Discovery and Seekr. The student-facing product is free; employers access a vetted first-generation talent pipeline. The organization has stated a public goal of reaching 1 million users by 2030.
BASTA firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- BASTA
- Legal name
- ARIZOU DBA BASTA
- Website
- https://projectbasta.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- BASTA is a nonprofit tech organization that uses its AI-powered Seekr career navigation platform to help first-generation college students secure quality jobs. It partners with 300+ universities and employers like Bloomberg and Google across 45+ U.S. states.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
BASTA industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Career Navigation Software
- NAICS
- Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131), Educational Support Services (611710)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Job Placement, Matching & Career Navigation Services (EDAAAOAL)
Keywords
Where BASTA is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brooklyn
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
BASTA business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Foundation Grants: Basta is primarily a nonprofit funded by foundation grants. Major grants include $4M from MacKenzie Scott (2024), $1.2M from The Leon Levine Foundation (2026) for Carolinas expansion, $800K from Carnegie Corporation of New York (2026) for national scaling, and $600K from GreenLight Fund Philadelphia (2026). Additional grants from New Profit (unrestricted funding) and Schultz Family Foundation (AI partnership).
- Institutional Partner Subscriptions: Universities, colleges, and nonprofits pay to access Discovery platform and Seekr for their students. Partners receive dashboards, marketing toolkits, community practice resources, and full-scale support. Pricing not publicly disclosed.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Others | Free for students |
| Subscription | Annual | Partner institution subscription |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
BASTA product offering
Product offeringCore offering
BASTA is a tech nonprofit that operates an AI-enabled career navigation platform (Seekr) combined with a structured career preparation program (Discovery) to help first-generation college students transition from college to strong first jobs. The company sells subscriptions to its Discovery platform and Seekr AI tools to universities, colleges, and youth-serving nonprofits, while offering its career navigation survey, job board, fellowship, and live coaching to students at no cost. BASTA also connects employers to a vetted pipeline of first-generation talent for hiring and mentorship.
Product overview
BASTA operates as a tech nonprofit offering a platform of career navigation products designed to connect first-generation college students to quality jobs. The core product is Seekr, an AI-enabled career navigation platform that provides personalized job matching and assessment. This is complemented by Discovery, a career prep platform combining live workshops and AI-powered analytics, and the Basta Fellowship program offering intensive career coaching. Additional products include the forthcoming Job FitFinder browser extension, Social Capital Insights research data, and the First Semester to First Job Framework for institutional implementation. Seekr LITE provides free access to the core assessment for broader student reach.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Seekr: Basta's AI-enabled career navigation platform and survey tool that maps early job seekers' career journeys, provides personalized reports on strengths and pathways, and powers job matching for first-generation students.
- Discovery
- Seekr LITE
- Basta Job FitFinder
Products and services
- Seekr BASTA's flagship AI-enabled career navigation platform that provides personalized job matching, career assessments, and pathway guidance for first-generation college students. Built on a proprietary dataset of over 8 million data points from 76,000+ students. Sold to universities as a subscription and offered free to students.
- Discovery A career preparation platform combining evidence-based assessments, live online workshops in peer cohorts, and practical resources, with real-time dashboards for partner institutions. Offered to universities and nonprofits as an institutional subscription.
- Basta Fellowship
Quantifiable outcome
- Discovery participants earn avg first salary of $60,500 vs $45,900 national average for college graduates (32% premium)
- +8 more outcomes
Companies that use BASTA
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
BASTA technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability5 records
Feature5 records
BASTA partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
15 partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.
- Schultz Family FoundationcorePartnership to develop AI-driven career navigation tools aimed at reducing early career underemployment. Project involves integrating a 'job match' score into an existing AI career tool (Seekr) to improve job placement for college graduates. Initiative seeks to democratize access to career resources and enhance social mobility.
- Bloomberg LPcoreFoundational employer partner opening pathways for first-gen students of color to join Bloomberg and other top companies. Since 2016: 200+ Bloomberg employees contributed 400+ volunteer hours, worked with 200 Basta fellows, and hired 50+ Basta fellows into full-time roles. Hosts quarterly mentorship program matching employees with fellows. Bloomberg Corporate Philanthropy team manages partnership.
- GooglecoreStrategic employer partner providing mentorship and hiring first-generation talent through Basta's platform. Google employees participate in panels and career events.
- BNYcoreStrategic employer partner hiring first-generation talent via Basta's platform. BNY's Chief Administrative Officer Alejandro Perez serves on Basta's board.
- Blackstone LaunchPadcoreExpanded partnership with Basta to connect first-gen students to startup ecosystem opportunities. Blackstone LaunchPad operates on university campuses helping student entrepreneurs.
- Morris CollegesupportingHBCU in South Carolina operating as a pilot partner for Basta's Carolinas expansion with The Leon Levine Foundation funding.
- KIPP Pride High SchoolsupportingPart of the KIPP network of public charter schools in North Carolina, operating as a pilot partner in Basta's Carolinas expansion.
- Brooklyn College (CUNY)supportingPartner institution using Discovery platform. With only 6 career staff serving 14,000 students (nearly half first-gen), set goal of 100 fellowship applications but received 650+. Published case study on scaling career readiness.
- KIPP New JerseysupportingNetwork of tuition-free public charter schools that embedded Discovery into career prep for alumni. Collaboration led to 22 KIPP students landing internships in one summer.
- Beyond 12supportingEducation technology nonprofit partner collaborating with Basta on student success and career outcomes. Beyond 12 coaches engage with Basta students for both immediate success and long-term equitable outcomes.
- Amazon and OraclesupportingTechnology sector employer partners hiring first-generation talent through Basta's Discovery platform and job board.
- EY and Cushman & WakefieldsupportingConsulting sector employer partners hiring first-generation talent through Basta's Discovery platform and job board.
- WPP MediasupportingMedia sector employer partner hiring first-generation talent through Basta's Discovery platform and job board.
- NYC Human Resources Administration and MTAsupportingGovernment/nonprofit sector employer partners hiring first-generation talent through Basta's Discovery platform and job board.
- DeloittesupportingPro-bono consulting team from Deloitte helped Basta articulate the potential scale of efforts and designed a plan to reach 1 million users by 2030, creating $60bn in generational wealth.
Scale indicators13 records
Recent moves9 records
Expansion highlights7 records
BASTA competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Chegg: Chegg is an established EdTech platform serving college students with textbooks, tutoring, and career support. It represents a broad incumbent in the student-services category where Basta operates, with substantially larger user base but less specialized first-gen focus.
- Indeed: Indeed is the largest global job search platform with broad employer reach. It serves the entry-level and recent-grad market that Basta targets but lacks specialization in first-gen or non-traditional career navigation.
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn is the dominant professional network with massive employer inventory and AI-driven career coaching features launched in 2023-2024. It serves a far broader population than Basta but competes for the same student attention and employer recruitment marketing dollars.
Direct peers
- Braven: Braven is a nonprofit career accelerator that supports first-generation and low-income college students through fellowship-style programming and employer connections, mirroring Basta's mission and fellowship model with similar outcome-reporting rigor.
- Year Up: Year Up is a large workforce-development nonprofit providing training, internships, and wraparound support for young adults from low-income backgrounds. While its model emphasizes pre-employment training rather than college-to-career transition, it serves the same employer demand channel for diverse early-career talent.
- Beyond 12: Beyond 12 is an education technology nonprofit that partners with colleges to coach first-generation and historically underrepresented students to and through college completion. It is a current Basta partner with deeply overlapping mission and student population.
- Handshake: Handshake is the dominant college-to-career marketplace, connecting students at 1,400+ universities with employer job postings and career services tools. It is the most directly comparable platform to Basta's Seekr + Discovery offering in terms of target user (college students) and core functionality (job matching + career services).
- Opportunity@Work: Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit focused on the STARs (Skilled Through Alternative Routes) workforce — workers without four-year degrees whose skills were gained through nontraditional paths. It shares Basta's data-driven approach to employer matching for non-traditional talent and overlaps with first-gen college graduates post-employment.
- uAspire: uAspire is a nonprofit that works with low-income and first-generation college students to help them persist through college and into post-graduate employment. Its mission overlaps with Basta's upstream of the career-launch moment and serves a closely related student population.
Others
- Schultz Family Foundation (Opportunity Hub): The Schultz Family Foundation is a current Basta partner funding AI-driven career navigation tools. Its broader Opportunity work focuses on workforce entry and advancement for non-traditional talent, making it both a partner and thematic peer operating in adjacent theory-of-change territory.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
BASTA social profiles
Digital presenceBASTA financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
BASTA leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
BASTA funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors4 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
BASTA M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about BASTA
What does BASTA do?
BASTA is a tech nonprofit that operates an AI-enabled career navigation platform (Seekr) combined with a structured career preparation program (Discovery) to help first-generation college students transition from college to strong first jobs. The company sells subscriptions to its Discovery platform and Seekr AI tools to universities, colleges, and youth-serving nonprofits, while offering its career navigation survey, job board, fellowship, and live coaching to students at no cost. BASTA also connects employers to a vetted pipeline of first-generation talent for hiring and mentorship.
Is BASTA a public or private company?
BASTA is a private company. It is classified as nonprofit foundation owned and is currently operating.
When was BASTA founded?
BASTA was founded in 2016. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is BASTA based?
BASTA is headquartered in Brooklyn, United States, in the North America region.
How does BASTA make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Foundation Grants are the primary driver. The others are institutional Partner Subscriptions.
Who are BASTA's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Chegg, Indeed and LinkedIn. Direct peers are Braven, Year Up, Beyond 12, Handshake, Opportunity@Work and uAspire. Schultz Family Foundation (Opportunity Hub) is listed as an others.
Does BASTA have an API?
No public API is recorded for BASTA.
What industry is BASTA in?
BASTA's product category is Career Navigation Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDAAAOAL, Job Placement, Matching & Career Navigation Services. Its NAICS code is 56131 and its SIC code is 8200.