Degreed, a startup that helps organizations improve staff skills, on Thursday said it has raised $35 million in equity funding.
Existing investors Owl Ventures, Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures and GSV Accelerate participated in the round, along with new investor Alliance Bernstein.
Separately, Degreed also raised about $40 million in venture debt from Alliance Bernstein Growth Stage Capital.
The Bengaluru and San Francisco-based Degreed will use the funds to focus on improving user experience and expand into countries including India, Singapore and Australia.
Degreed allows enterprises to learn and measure the skills required for the smooth functioning of their workforces.
It aggregates resources people use to learn and grow, including corporate learning systems and millions of courses, videos, books, articles, podcasts and subject experts from thousands of sources.
Degreed then uses machine learning to provide people and businesses with the tools, analytics, and feedback they need next to upskill their professional abilities.
Founded in 2012, Degreed has offices in Salt Lake City, New York and Amsterdam.
Degreed plans to use the fresh funds to enhance their skills measurement and insights functionality, and strengthen integration, data science, and client enablement capabilities.
Over the last year, Degreed claims to have doubled its revenue and the size of the company’s sales and client experience teams. It merged and integrated its largest competitor Pathgather.
It also added nearly 100 new clients to its 220-strong client base that includes Cognizant, Conduent, Asian Paints, Atlassian, Imperial Brands, Unilever, and TELUS International.
“This additional capital will allow us to create more market awareness in Asia Pacific region and further execute on the road map and commitments 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. We will continue to invest heavily in our industry-leading client enablement teams,” Chris McCarthy, chief executive of Degreed, said in a statement.
McCarthy said the firm achieved record growth over the last 18 months, with 20% of its revenue coming from outside the US. Degreed has also doubled its headcount in India during the period.
“Their (Degreed’s) relationship with the end user is unique in the market and it positions them to own the way learning and skills are measured across the enterprise,” said Tory Patterson, co-founder and managing director of Owl Ventures.
Source: Mint