Valence Enterprises Inc., a Santa Monica-based company that’s developing a sort of LinkedIn for black professionals, has raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by Upfront Ventures.

Valence is aimed at improving the visibility of black professionals as well as generating more opportunities and wealth for members of the community.

Kobie Fuller, a partner at Santa Monica-based Upfront and a black professional, came up with the idea for Valence out of frustration.

For years, companies and venture capitalists would turn to Fuller to help them find black talent. Fuller often ended up funneling the queries to his own network or to historically black colleges because there wasn’t an expansive platform or network for his community.

“We want to be the digital home for global black professionals,” said Valence co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Emily Slade. She met Fuller at a conference two years ago, and he shared the idea with her.

“This resonated for me on a personal level,” Slade said. “My grandma and grandpa couldn’t legally get married because they were an interracial couple.”

Slade, who has spent more than a decade working on social networks, developed Valence with Fuller and co-founder La Mer Walker.

One feature that’s built into the platform is a mentor option that allows members to volunteer as a coach for other Valence users.

The 1-year-old company, which incorporated on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, now has several thousand sign-ups on its waitlist and is working with UCLA, USC, Morehouse College and other schools to onboard talent. Valence is also tapping into universities’ alumni associations.

For companies looking to diversify their organizations, Fuller is pitching the platform as a place that offers “huge potential competitive revenue.” 

Once the site gains traction, Slade said, it will charge for recruiting and job postings, offering a tiered structure much like LinkedIn.

For now, Valence is open and free to anyone who self-identifies as black. Initially it is aimed at the technology, entertainment, media and finance fields.

Valence already has some high-profile endorsements including from supermodel Tyra Banks and early supporter Christine Simmons, chief operating officer of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Slade said part of the company’s strategy has been bringing in professionals who are already at the top in their field as founding members of Valence. That includes Omar Johnson, a former marketing executive for Beats Electronics; Peggy Alford, an executive at PayPal Holdings Inc. who sits on Facebook Inc.’s board; and Paul Judge, a tech entrepreneur and investor.