Degreed, a learning and skills tracking platform for workers, has raised $35 million in an equity round of funding from Owl Ventures, Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures, GSV Accelerate, and Alliance Bernstein. The company also raised $40 million in debt financing from Alliance Bernstein Growth Stage Capital.
Founded in 2012, San Francisco-based Degreed aims to help employees develop the skills needed to advance their careers. Through the Degreed app, users select a “role” — their current job or a position they are working toward — and then any specific skills they’re looking to develop.
Above: Degreed: Choose your role
Above: Degreed: Add your skills
Degreed then serves up access to courses, videos, books, articles, podcasts, and other resources, as well as providing individuals and businesses additional tools, analytics, and feedback as an employee progresses.
Above: Degreed: Profile page
Degreed operates on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) pricing model, with a sliding scale based on the number of employees in a company that ranges from $10 to $12 per user. It’s worth noting that Degreed also targets individual users who can access the platform for free, though they can also pay $129 to receive certification in a specific skill or $399 for an unlimited membership.
Degreed had previously raised $78.2 million, including its $42 million series C round last March, and with another $75 million in the bank it plans to expand globally and continue building out its product — including enhancing its ability to measure skills and investing in machine learning.
Learning growth
Degreed said it has grown its revenue 100% in the past year, though the company stopping short of divulging specific figures, and has tripled its sales, engineering, and “client experience” teams. Moreover, last June Degreed acquired Pathgather, one of its biggest competitors — and the company said some of its fresh cash influx could be put toward additional acquisitions.
“Degreed has achieved record growth over the last 18 months, and the market is only accelerating globally,” said Degreed CEO Chris McCarthy. “Today, 20% of our revenue comes from outside the United States. This additional capital will allow us to further execute on the roadmap we laid out at the beginning of the year. We are doubling down on our skills product and the data science and machine learning capabilities to support it.”
Other recent developments in the corporate elearning and development space include “microlearning” startup Grovo, which had raised some $70 million before it was snapped up by Cornerstone On Demand last year. Coursera, which offers a range of courses for individuals and the corporate sphere, has raised $103 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion. And career coaching platform BetterUp recently secured $103 million in funding.
Career development, coaching, and “upskilling,” is big business. The elearning market is estimated to be at $190 billion today and could grow to $300 billion by 2025. The corporate elearning industry specifically is reportedly worth around $15 billion, and this is the market Degreed has been chasing, with big-name clients including Airbnb, Boeing, Unilever, MasterCard, Atlassian, Dell EMC, GitHub, Gap, NASA, and Cisco.
Source: VentureBeat
