As unemployment rates are still near an all-time low, developing internal talent instead of hiring externally, is critical for organisations looking to remain competitive. The evolving technologies and new economic realities keep changing jobs at an increasingly fast pace, organisations are moving from jobs as the cornerstone of their workforce, to skills, but are still looking for support on the journey.
Addressing the challenge, Dutch edtech startup Lepaya bridges the gap between emerging skill needs and organisational readiness. It pioneers a future where businesses thrive in the face of change.
Now, the soft skills training provider, has scored $38 million in funding. This is the biggest round raised in the education industry so far in 2023. This round follows the three acquisitions made by the company and the $40 million Series B funding that was raised in 2021. Also, the total funding raised by the company to date accounts for $80 million.
The investment was led by Endeit and joined by Educapital, Mars Growth Capital, and Liquidity Capital, as well as the existing investors Target Global and Mediahuis Ventures.
With the fresh funds, Lepaya will double down on the development and go-to-market of the AI-driven capability development platform. With this new investment round, the company will make additional investments in AI tools such as AI-coach which will adjust the learning content to an individual learner’s context and career level.
Lepaya’s investment to further advance its capability development platform is a direct answer to the increasing need for insights into current workforce skills as well as identifying gaps towards needed skills. Further investments will be made to advance the skills data analysis so that the organisations and their leaders reach deeper skills intelligence.
Edwin Hengstmengel, Endeit Capital said: “It’s impressive how Lepaya managed to engrain its platform as a core part of its client’s upskilling DNA, and we are very excited to be part of the continued journey.”
Jonathan Denais, Educapital, added: “In the tight labour market corporates struggle with workforce planning. What we love about Lepaya’s platform is that it does not only identify skill gaps but provides a scalable way for the enterprise to upskill people – and to keep promoting their internal talent.”
René Janssen, co-founder at Lepaya stated,: “The rapid developments in AI allow us to provide organisations and the world with what we always had envisioned, and individual employees with what they deserve: a deeply personal insight in skill gaps, and a truly contextualised way to bridge them; by combining the best artificial and human intelligence, and taking care of all the complex operations surrounding global upskilling programs”
Deploys AI for skill readiness
Founded in 2018 by René Janssen and Peter Kuperus in Amsterdam, Lepaya combines artificial and human intelligence to ensure employees acquire the skills needed to remain effective and productive, in the flow of their daily work.
With the right training, at the right time, focused on the right skill, the platform makes organisations productive and enables overall business growth. Lepaya’s solution focuses on increasing talent retention and productivity through a blend of online, offline, and virtual reality training through an all-in-one capability platform.
Lepaya supports millions of professionals by combining hard skills with soft skills, offered together as Power Skills via an AI-powered capability platform. It is poised to redefine the way global organisations such as ING, Dell, Maersk, KPMG Freudenberg, and the rest of its 2000 clients identify, close, and track skills gaps.
