London based start-up eSwapp, a skills platform for colleagues, has recently raised £350,000 from a private angel investor.
The firm, one of 31 startups in a diverse founder cohort selected by TechHub and Google, was co-founded by Uyen Ngo, a former marketer for multinationals such as Danone and GlaxoSmithKline.
It was also one of 14 UK companies selected for a British government mission to the Netherlands on Artificial Intelligence in 2019.
Ngo created the firm after realising that instead of considering a £5,000 barista course following a love of coffee, she could simply swap her marketing skills with a barista for free.
The SaaS platform was built in 2019, and eSwapp now connects colleagues to upskill one-on-one online or in person. It is also designed to help organisations grow businesses using their most valuable assets; their staff’s skills.
Co-founder and COO Ghazal Diani, formerly at RBS and Goldman Sachs, joined the fledgling start-up to oversee operational functions and lead Business Development.
Its team now includes ex-Google, Yale University, DDB, and AI start-up staff.
Ngo, CEO, said, ‘We’re not here to “match” people. We’re here to bring together Swappers and their valued skills and empower organisations to know in real time what skills are missing.
“Our three-layer mathematical model, developed by a former associate at Yale and Cambridge University, makes skill predictions to help organisations get ahead of the curve with strategic business decisions backed by smart data.
“This pre-seed round will go towards new hires, fine-tuning our product development, and a solid client acquisition and retention strategy.”
eSwapp’s unnamed private investor added: “I am thrilled to invest in and partner with eSwapp to bring its array of benefits to more companies through skill sharing and knowledge transfer in the workplace. They help to solve some of the biggest pain points in business, and I see huge potential in eSwapp’s approach towards unlocking the potential that already exists within organisations.
Recently joined as Chief Customer Officer is Andrew Read, previously one of the first employees of a startup acquired by IBM, and recently Director of Sales at Adobe and Head of Sales & Strategy at MediaMelon.