German startup doinstruct, which is a video-based digital platform for onboarding and training employees, has secured $7.6 million in funding. The round was led by Spotify and Klarna-backer Creandum, which recently invested in Plancraft and Visibly. It also saw participation from existing investors HTGF (which invested in Storybox and ISPTech) and D11Z as well as Bastian Karweg (Founder Dealfront) and Andreas Hettich (Hettich Group).
doinstruct will use the funding to scale the product at a faster pace, expand internationally, and enter new vertical sectors.
Simon Schmincke, General Partner at Creandum said: “There are more than 2.7bn frontline workers around the world that have been left behind by current training options. Doinstruct has built an incredible, easy-to-use product with the needs of these workers in mind and their customers love it. We see huge potential for them as they expand both across vertical sectors and internationally.”
What challenge does it tackle?
Europe is facing a jobs crisis driven by skills shortages and aging populations. Reportedly, three-quarters of employers in 21 European countries could not find workers equipped with the right skills in 2023. Historically low unemployment rates coupled with declining birth rates is creating a jobs gap with immigration key to filling this gap in critical and highly regulated sectors such as food processing.
To date, frontline workers have been largely underserved by technology, trained mostly in a non-native language, in-person or using e-learning solutions not developed with the needs of these workers in mind. This is expensive for employers and makes compliance often hard to track which can have serious consequences in industries such as food processing where hygiene standards are critical, or in dangerous work environments.
This is where doinstruct’s simple, mobile-first approach comes into the picture with barrier-free, bite-sized training in the worker’s native language.
What does the company do?
doinstruct was founded in 2021 by Charlotte Rothert, Daniel Marinkovic, Thorsten Groß, and Mona Feder. Its mobile-first onboarding and training platform keeps the real needs of deskless workers front of mind. There is no app to download, no password to remember, and no email required. All of the training content is continually updated in partnership with regulators and certifiers and currently available in more than 16 languages.
For employers, the platform provides unlimited usage of training packages and a high degree of automation, allowing them to set their training on ‘autopilot’ so it automatically repeats where needed for continuous learning. They can also record and upload their own content.
Customer base
The company has seen good traction in food, logistics, and construction with more than 170 customers, including well-known European brands such as Voelkel, Wiesenhof, Hengstenberg, and Echterhoff, among others.
A dashboard allows them to easily track and report training compliance. On average, doinstruct’s customers reach an adoption rate of over 90% in the first month, have saved 4.6 hours of productive work per employee and reduced training costs by nearly 43%.
Charlotte Rothert, CEO and co-founder at doinstruct said: “I started my career restructuring large agricultural operations in the EU, where I was introduced to the world of warehouses and factories. And I worked closely with the unseen and underappreciated backbone of our country that powers same-day delivery, builds our cities, and puts food on the shelves. Like most companies, I trained our employees with time-intensive, face-to-face training that barely reached everyone. I needed the ability to train barrier-free, time- and language-independent, and compliant to meet fluctuating international demand in a multi-shift system. With doinstruct, we built the tool I wish I had back then.”
Charlotte Rothert, CEO and Co-founder at doinstruct added: “Our customers are facing a rising number of challenges. They are affected by increasingly tough regulatory requirements and labor shortages. Shift workers are difficult to reach, language barriers make compliant training and information delivery nearly impossible, and inevitable employee turnover requires ongoing, time-consuming retraining. I know we can do better. And it’s obvious that workers and industrial companies deserve better.”
What do we think about doinstruct?
Targeting global expansion and new verticals, and addressing the critical needs of frontline workers with a user-friendly, mobile-first training platform, it is well-positioned to become a leader in workforce training. Its scalable, compliance-focused solution is set to transform industries facing labour shortages and regulatory challenges.
