Hong Phuc Nguyen grew up surrounded by female entrepreneurs. “In my hometown in Vietnam, most of the owners, shop runners, even we [who] run the country, run the household, are women,” says Nguyen. So, she didn’t expect the struggle of landing a permanent job when she moved to Canada in 2020 — especially since she was armed with an MBA and international career experience. That spurred her to create a hiring solution to help newcomers and employers, alike.
In 2022, she launched Kibbi, a multilingual job board and app. Kibbi addresses numerous barriers newcomers face, ranging from location to language. There’s a map feature to see job postings near you, automatically generated cover letters tailored to job descriptions, an “invite to apply” feature for employers, AI-generated translations of job descriptions and chats, upskilling resources, and more.
“Our vision is a world where anyone, regardless of background, can effortlessly start contributing to and finding a sense of belonging in their new community from Day 1,” says Nguyen.
In Kibbi’s first nine months, Nguyen raised $875,000 from angel investors and venture capitalists. Additional funding support from organizations such as Alberta Innovates and the National Research Council of Canada’s Industrial Research Assistance Program brought the total to more than $1.1 million. In 2023, Nguyen received Immigrant Services Calgary’s Immigrants of Distinction Award for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. In 2024, Kibbi expanded to more than 30 universities and colleges through a joint venture with Devant, an on-demand career service portal that helps international students seeking jobs in Canada.
Need to know: Since 2022, more than 48,000 job-seekers and 1,600 small businesses have used Kibbi.