Learnerbly, a SaaS-enabled marketplace for workplace learning and development, has secured £7.5 million in a Series A round led by Beringea.
The funding will accelerate the international growth of the preferred learning and development platform for many of Europe’s leading tech companies, including Hellofresh, King and GoCardless.
Notable participants in the round included new investors Digital Horizon Ventures, BY Venture Partners, GO Ventures, and prolific marketplace venture fund FJ Labs, alongside existing investors Frontline Ventures, Triple Point, London Co-Investment Fund and UFI Ventures.
Learnerbly also secured the backing of influential angel investors including Zach Coelius (Coelius Capital), Leonard Picardo (second employee at Deliveroo), Neil Ryland (CRO of Peakon), Renaud Visage (Co-Founder and CTO of Eventbrite), and Stephan Thoma (former Global Head of Learning at Google).
Learnerbly was founded in London in 2017 by Rajeeb Dey MBE, whose previous success in scaling Enternships – a portal connecting students and graduates with work placements in start-ups and fast-growth businesses – led to his recognition as the youngest recipient of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise Promotion in 2013.
Learnerbly’s online marketplace guides and supports employees to access the most relevant resources covering a breadth of topic areas for first-time leaders through to engineers, marketers, finance and sales. They provide access to books, podcasts, conferences, courses, coaching and more from over 250 leading providers including Blinkist, Masterclass, Pluralsight, and General Assembly.
This provides its clients, such as WeTransfer, Curve and Busuu, with a platform that upskills, unlocks potential, and inspires a culture of growth in tech-focused businesses.
Learnerbly is used by thousands of employees in 100+ organisations across more than 50 countries.
It will use the funding to strengthen its product development, scale its distributed workforce of more than 60 employees and harness global demand for its services, particularly in the USA.
“An increasingly competitive hiring market and the rise of the ‘great resignation’ mean employers worldwide are concerned about how they recruit and retain top talent,” said Dey. “The focus on learning and development has, therefore, never been greater.
“And yet, many HR teams struggle to keep up with the breadth of content and pace of change required for L&D in the digital economy. At Learnerbly, we tackle these challenges head on. Our platform provides employees with the tools to discover exceptional content from more than 250 providers and tailor their own learning plans.
“This means employers – particularly scale-ups that don’t have vast in-house L&D functions – can easily offer access to best-in-class learning without ever needing to create their own content, manage relationships with multiple content providers, or take what we would deem a ‘one-size-fits-none’ approach to L&D.
“This clearly works: employers see a 3X+ increase in engagement in learning when using Learnerbly, saving clients vital time and money.”
Maria Wagner, investment director at Beringea, commented: “With the hybrid work environment, employers are under pressure to offer new ways of learning for their employees and ensure they are engaged and retained.
“At the same time, HR departments are struggling with the proliferation of learning providers and managing multiple suppliers. Learnerbly offers a curated solution that serves both the needs of the employees and of HR departments in this new environment.
“We were impressed with Raj and the team, and we are excited to join them on their journey.”