# Joonko

> Joonko was an Israeli-founded, AI-powered diversity recruiting platform that promised talent-acquisition teams automated access to pre-vetted candidates from underrepresented groups - women, people of color, and veterans. Founded in 2016 by Ilit Raz and named after Everest pioneer Junko Tabei, the company graduated from Techstars Atlanta and the Salesforce Incubator, and raised roughly $30 million from investors including Insight Partners, Target Global, Kapor Capital, and Vertex Ventures Israel. In 2023 the story collapsed: an investor confronted Raz over inconsistencies, she admitted to fabricating customer contracts, bank statements, revenue, and candidate counts, and she resigned. The SEC charged her in 2024 with a $21 million 'AI washing' securities fraud, and Joonko filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after shutting down and laying off all staff.

- **Founded:** 2016
- **Headquarters:** Tel Aviv, Israel (with U.S. operations in New York, NY and Birmingham, AL)
- **Founders:** Ilit Raz (Founder & CEO (resigned July 2023))
- **Team size:** Roughly 11-50 at various points; all employees were laid off when the company shut down in 2023-2024.
- **Products:** Joonko Automated Sourcing Platform, ATS Marketplace Integrations
- **Notable:** Graduated from Techstars Atlanta and the Salesforce Incubator., Raised roughly $30 million across seed, Series A, and a $25M Series B led by Insight Partners., Publicly reported 500% year-over-year sales growth for two consecutive years (claim later thrown into doubt by fraud findings).

## Products & services

- **Joonko Automated Sourcing Platform** — AI-powered software that collected strong applicants who did not get one role and made them available to other companies with open, diversity-focused positions, matching and routing 'silver-medalist' candidates from underrepresented groups into recruiters' funnels.
- **ATS Marketplace Integrations** — Candidate-matching integrations distributed through applicant-tracking-system marketplaces such as JazzHR and iCIMS, letting talent teams tap Joonko's candidate pool inside existing hiring workflows.

## Achievements

- Graduated from Techstars Atlanta and the Salesforce Incubator.
- Raised roughly $30 million across seed, Series A, and a $25M Series B led by Insight Partners.
- Publicly reported 500% year-over-year sales growth for two consecutive years (claim later thrown into doubt by fraud findings).
- Built ATS-marketplace integrations with JazzHR and iCIMS.
- Became a widely cited case study in 'AI washing' securities fraud following the 2024 SEC charges.

## Latest updates

- **2022-09** — Raised $25M Series B led by Insight Partners; announced a U.S. co-headquarters in New York.
- **2023-06** — Investors publicly alleged the founder had lied about clients and candidate numbers.
- **2023-07** — Ilit Raz resigned after admitting to fabricating data; board declared her conduct fraudulent; company moved toward shutdown.
- **2024-04** — SEC charged Ilit Raz with a $21M securities fraud, describing it as an 'AI washing' scheme.
- **2024-05** — Joonko filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after ceasing operations and laying off all employees.

## Links

- Website: https://joonko.co
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/joonkorecruitmentsoftware
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/joonkoHQ
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/JoonkoHQ

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/joonko-techstars-salesforce-incubator
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-20