Oneday, a London-based edtech platform announced on Wednesday that it has secured £2.5M in a seed funding round co-led by BrightEye VC and Outward VC.
Others, including Flint Capital and well-known angel investors, include Joshua Wohle, CEO at Mindstone and Co-founder of SuperAwesome, who also participated in the round. The announcement comes after raising £750K in pre-seed funding.
How will the funding be used?
The investment will enable Oneday to expand the team, accelerate product innovation, and scale-up growth.
According to a survey, nearly a third of UK workers are considering changing jobs in 2022, but even more interestingly, in 2021 ‘how to start a business’ was searched more than ‘how to get a job’.
Ranbir Arora, CEO & Co-founder of Oneday, says, “Today, the careers that we aspire to are all within the passion economy; as people are sat in their cubicles in large corporations, they’re saying ‘One day I’m going to launch my own makeup line, one day I’m going to launch my own music label, one day I’m going to become a YouTuber.”
He adds, “For corporate career paths, we have this massive higher education system that helps people get those careers. But nothing exists that helps get people into these passion economy careers that they dream of. That’s why we created Oneday, so we can help everyone create lives and careers that they love.”
Turns passion into a business
Founded by Ranbir Arora and Taras Polischuk, Oneday helps aspiring entrepreneurs turn their passion into a business through expert-led coaching, community & content.
The edtech company does it by matching them with successful CEOs as mentors, a community of fellow founders, and all the content and tools they need to launch and fund their business.
The UK platform aims to make entrepreneurship more accessible to everyone, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, or background. In fact, 51% of Oneday’s founders are female, whilst 56% are ethnic minorities.
With over 1,500 mentors; Business founders, CEOs, Executives, Marketing Directors, Product Managers, and more, it has several success stories already, including Jake Casson, who founded the FinTech firm Monet.
Oneday says that Jake onboarded 7,000 beta users and raised £550K with the help of his Oneday mentor.
Jake Casson, CEO at Monet & Oneday member says, “The Oneday community has been life-changing. I had a great experience with my mentor James. Not only has his advice been extremely impactful for my business, but he actually helped me close the pre-seed funding round!”
Ben Wirz, Partner at Brighteye says, “Oneday combines best-in-class learning practices with an incredible community of mentors to provide useful, structured feedback for entrepreneurs through ideation, launch, and growth – it’s a step-change in entrepreneurship education and we’re excited to be on board.”
Kevin Chong, Co-Head at Outward VC, says, “Having backed dozens of startups over the years, I’ve seen first-hand the value a good mentor can provide to an entrepreneur. But I’ve also seen when that relationship hasn’t worked when expectations are unaligned and meetings with mentors soon feel like a chore.
“Oneday changes all this, by formalising the coaching process. Our hope, and one of the reasons why we invested, is that in the not-too-distant future Oneday can be a viable, and much more affordable, alternative to higher education,” he adds.
