Connect is the Product VC. We are a thesis-led, pan-European pre-seed and seed stage VC. We invest in opinionated products, crafted with love, and loved by many. We've been backing product-led founders since 2012. Our investments include Truelayer, Typeform, Oyster, Lifebit, Kheiron, Faks and Sprinque. Our specialisms cut across SaaS, fintech, consumer, digital health and Web3. Collectively, we’re passionate about the power of product to transform people’s lives. We started Connect to back companies that help create the world we want to live in, and it’s hard to change the world without scale. That's why we’re in the business of investing in outlier companies — those with the potential to create impact on a massive scale.

Connect Ventures

Valo Ventures is a thesis-driven venture capital firm investing in North America and Europe. Our mission is ''investing for a brighter future'' and we do this by focusing on four catalyzing megatrends: climate change, circular economy, autonomy and empowered people. We identify and support entrepreneurs who are applying digital technologies to create long term economic, environmental and social value. Learn more at www.valoventures.org.

Valo Ventures

Prosus is the international internet assets division of Naspers. The global investment group is the largest consumer internet company in Europe, and among the largest technology investors in the world, operating across a variety of platforms and geographies. Prosus is a unique blend of venture capital and operating company that funds, acquires, builds and scales technology businesses. It combines venture capital investing with deep operational experience in the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company has meaningful investments in Tencent, Mail.ru, Ctrip.com International Limited, and DeliveryHero. Prosus has a primary listing on Euronext Amsterdam (AEX:PRX) and a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (XJSE:PRX), and is majority owned by Naspers.

Prosus & Naspers

Workday Ventures is the strategic investment arm of Workday focused on identifying, investing, and partners with early to growth-stage companies. The company helps accelerate innovation and connects the next generation of enterprise technology companies with Workday’s customers, partners, and employees.

Workday Ventures

eduMe

EduMe is a mobile-based training platform for the deskless workforce, used by modern companies in more than 60 countries worldwide. By providing their workforce with seamless access to relevant knowledge, companies like Uber, Gopuff, Deliveroo, Gorillas and Vodafone are enabling their people to achieve Workforce Success. EduMe is headquartered in London, UK with offices in Palo Alto and Santa Monica, USA. Visit us at edume.com to learn more

<div>UK-based EduMe is a mobile-based corporate learning platform focused on the gig economy and deskless employees; it offers a suite of corporate training products in onboarding, compliance, and professional services. As of January 2022, the platform had served 60 customers globally across several industries such as ride-hailing, food delivery, logistics, mobile network operators, retail, hospitality, and healthcare. Its customers include Gopuff, Deliveroo, Deloitte, Uber, and Vodafone.</div>

Modern tools to train and motivate staff, and bridge emerging skill gaps.

EdTech: Corporate Learning

EduMe

<div>
 
 UK-based EduMe is a mobile-based corporate learning platform focused on the gig economy and deskless employees; it offers a suite of corporate training products in onboarding, compliance, and professional services. As of January 2022, the platform had served 60 customers globally across several industries such as ride-hailing, food delivery, logistics, mobile network operators, retail, hospitality, and healthcare. Its customers include Gopuff, Deliveroo, Deloitte, Uber, and Vodafone.
 
 
 EduMe entered into several partnerships in 2021 to extend its services. The company partnered with goPuff, an online grocery delivery platform in February 2021, to deploy its technology across 500 cities nationwide, in which goPuff operates. In June 2021, it partnered with workforce management solutions provider Quinyx, to offer its services to the latter’s customers. This was followed by a partnership with global online delivery solution Wolt in July 2021, allowing it to deploy its technology across Wolt’s operations in 180 cities across 23 countries. 
 
 
 In January 2022, the company raised USD 20 million in a 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/7739?industryIds=46">
 Series B
 </a>
 funding round co-led by Prosus and Workday Ventures, with participation from Valo Ventures (lead investor in EduMe’s Series A funding round).  
 
</div>

<div>
 
 Coursera is a massive open online course provider (MOOC) founded in 2012 by Stanford University professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera partners with universities and organizations to offer classes, courses, specialization programs, projects, certificates, degree programs, and workforce development products. The platform hosts classes from more than 200 universities and contains a suite of video lectures, auto-graded homework assignments, and discussion forums.&nbsp;
 
 
 Launched in 2016, Coursera for Business is the company's enterprise platform; Coursera for Government and Nonprofits, introduced in 2017, offers skill development courses for government and nonprofit workforces; and Coursera for Campus allows universities to offer online education to students, alumni, faculty, and staff. As of August 2021, the Coursera platform was being used by about 87 million learners, with Coursera for Business being used by more than 2,300 organizations and 550,000 enterprise learners as of September 2020.
 
 
 In April 2021, Coursera announced that it was testing a new program that allows learners to create courses by making its Guided Project teaching tool available to its learner community. In August 2021, the company announced a new fee structure for universities where fees paid to Coursera progressively reduce from 40% to 25% of total online tuition fees. The company also launched a Leadership Academy within Coursera for Business, to provide soft skills training to corporate leaders. &ldquo;LevelSets,&rdquo; an assessment tool with over 20 different machine learning-based skill assessments, was launched in November 2021 to enable learners to determine their current proficiency in business, technology, and data skills. More recently, in May 2022, the company launched Clips, a learning program that comprises 200,000+ videos for skill development for companies and universities. Additionally, the company released new tools, including personalized schedules, data-driven deadlines, lecture summaries, and adobe-guided projects. In conjunction with the release of new features, the company announced the launch of Career Academy for institutions, a career training program for learners that provide entry-level professional certification from notable corporations such as&nbsp; Google, IBM, and Meta.&nbsp;
 In February 2024, Coursera launched the Generative AI (GenAI) Academy in the UAE, partnering with top universities and companies like Microsoft and Google, to train executives and employees in AI skills.&nbsp;
 
 
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 Coursera continues to deploy collaborations to introduce new courses and expand its audience. The company selected Persona, a provider of identity verification infrastructure, as its identity verification partner to ensure that learners receive their credentials. The company partnered with K16 Solutions, a specialist in LMS course migration, course design, and course archiving, allowing Coursera users to quickly move course content from their LMS onto the Coursera platform as a result of its integration with K16 Solutions' Scaffold Migration tool. In May 2022, the company partnered with several institutions and enterprises, including IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Indore, IIIT Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Hero Mindmine, PwC India, and Tally Education, to meet the demand for job-relevant credentials.
 
 
 The company has entered into several notable client partnerships. In September 2021, it partnered with EFMD, a non-profit accreditation body, to provide business school students across 700 member institutions in 90 countries access to more than 4,000 courses and 1,900 Guided Projects on Coursera. The program will include courses from Google, Facebook, BCG, IBM, and Microsoft and they will be developed with support from partner schools and companies. In August 2022, Coursera partnered with corporate learning solution provider Skillsoft, to allow Skillsoft users access to Coursera for Business directly within Skillsoft Percipio.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In July 2020, Coursera raised USD 130 million as part of its Series F funding round, led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The funding will be used toward product development and engineering, expanding its job-relevant catalog, and furthering the company's overseas expansion. Specifically, the funding will allow the company to meet increased demand for two Covid-focused initiatives: Campus Response Initiative to help universities teach affected students, and Workforce Recovery Initiative to help governments reskill unemployed workers.&nbsp;
 
 
 In March 2021, Coursera went public and reportedly raised USD 519 million, with a post money-valuation of USD 5.86 billion.&nbsp;
 
 
 For the 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/16316">
 full-year 2022,
 </a>
 the company's revenue increased by 26% YoY to USD 523.8 million. However, the company also reported an operating loss of USD 177.4 million (up 24% YoY) and an adjusted EBITDA loss of USD 36.9 million (up 4.1% YoY), resulting in a net loss of USD 1.21 per share (down by 5.5% YoY). The company 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/20536">
 upgraded its full-year guidance for FY2023,
 </a>
 with revenue expected to range from USD 617 million&ndash;USD 623 million, and revised its adjusted EBITDA loss to range USD 19 million&ndash;USD 24 million.
 
</div>

Coursera

<div>
 
 Founded by David Blake, David Wiley, and Eric Sharp in 2012, Degreed is a professional and lifelong learning platform that provides curated educational content such as courses, videos, articles, books, and podcasts for employee skill building and skill certification. Degreed is free for individual users while Degreed for Enterprise, launched in 2014 as the company’s corporate offering that links to companies’ internal training systems, is available for a fee. In addition to providing training and coursework, Degreed for Enterprise matches employees' skill profiles, roles, and goals with opportunities, projects, and gigs. As of April 2021, the platform had been used by more than seven million people across more than 350 organizations.
 
 
 Degreed’s acquisitions include Gibbon, a Dutch platform for creating learning content playlists in 2016; Pathgather, a New York-based learning experience platform for enterprises in 2018; and London’s Adepto, a contract and gig work platform in 2019. Its most recent acquisition was in June 2022, when it 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/11296">
 acquired Learn In,
 </a>
 the upskilling-as-a-service platform, to strengthen Degreed’s suite of services by integrating Learn In’s solutions across the areas of user development, individual upskilling opportunities, and organizational innovation.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships 
 
 
 The company has used collaborations and partnerships to expand its portfolio of offerings. In November 2020, Degreed announced a partnership with TED to launch TED@Work on its platform. TED@Work is a library of more than 500 TED Talks and TED-Ed animations—each including a business-focused framework designed to create actionable outcomes. In February 2021, Pluralsight, a technology learning platform, expanded its partnership with Degreed, allowing Pluralsight’s enterprise users to incorporate assessment data from Pluralsight’s Skill IQ into Degreed’s skill analytics and gain greater visibility into individual and team technology skills. Historically, Degreed users were able to integrate Pluralsight’s technology content. In April 2021, the company partnered with Watershed, a provider of learning analytics platforms and part of UK-based Learning Technologies Group, allowing Degreed users access to enhanced learning analytics and reporting. In May 2021, the company announced a collaboration with Credly, a digital credentialing company, to render Credly’s digital credentials visible in Degreed’s talent development programs. This allows organizations to build transparent, centralized records of skill gaps and learning opportunities. Degreed partnered with Learn In, a developer of marketplace and funding solutions for skill building through bootcamp and certificate programs. Degreed users gain access to a marketplace of learning experiences, tools for employer tuition assistance, and support via personal coaches. In June 2021, Degreed deepened its five-year old partnership with CredSpark, a provider of audience engagement and insights solutions. Existing “CredSpark for Degreed'' users will gain access to additional tools and enhancements, and a new paid offering, “CredSpark+”, will give its users access to more sophisticated CredSpark tools. In May 2021, the company partnered with BoostUp.ai, the developer of a revenue intelligence and operations platform, to gain insight into its sales pipeline and improve pipeline management. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In June 2020, the company raised USD 32 million in a Series C extension round led by Owl Ventures. The funds will be used to develop its career mobility product that helps companies train their employees to fill internal opportunities. Degreed will also allow employees to showcase their skills and connect with job opportunities. In April 2021, Degreed raised USD 153 million in Series D funding to accelerate product development, enhance data infrastructure, fuel global expansion, and pursue strategic acquisitions. In August 2021, the company appointed Wendy Steinle as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) and Janice Burns as Chief People Officer.
 
</div>

Degreed

<div>
 
 Founded in 2015 by Rachel Carlson and Brittany Stich, Guild Education partners with businesses, non-profits, and universities to offer education as a benefit in the form of online classes, programs, and degrees from more than 80 universities and more than a dozen community colleges. Companies may provide their employees with partial or full tuition support to upskill or earn a degree. Guild works with employers to select programs that are most relevant to its employees, earning a percentage of the fees paid to the universities. The universities then save the expense and effort involved in marketing and recruitment. The company also provides its own support and mentoring services to help students plan, apply for, and finish their programs. As of November 2019, about 400,000 working adults joined the program–around 3%-5% of employees at partner companies. As of May 2020, the Guild Education platform offered more than 1,600 online degree programs.
 
 
 In June 2021, the company announced the formation of a new Advisory Board of diverse business education leaders to generate insights and better serve all stakeholders.
 
 
 In May 2020, Guild Education launched Next Chapter, a program that replaces outplacement services by using algorithms to match employees with new roles in fields that are hiring and recommend programs for retraining. The company also acquired Entangled Group, an educational technology (EdTech) consulting and venture studio that also served as an initial investor in Guild Education. Entangled Group's portfolio of 21 EdTech companies will be managed independently of Guild Education.
 
 
 Key customers and partnerships
 
 
 In February 2021, the company partnered with 2U, Inc., a developer of digital educational offerings in partnership with colleges and universities, to make 2U’s portfolio of more than 500 digital programs (including online degree programs, online short courses, and boot camps) available on the Guild Education platform. In March 2021, Ancora Corporate Training, a part of Ancora Education, an operator of private, post-secondary schools across the US, partnered with Guild Education by joining the Guild Education Learning Marketplace. In February 2022, the company partnered with UCHealth to launch the UCHealth Ascend Career Program, an educational and upskilling program investing up to USD 50 million for UCHealth employees. 
 More recently, In June 2022, Guild Education partnered with Snowflake, a cloud computing–based data warehousing firm, to deploy Snowflake’s new cybersecurity workload solution to strengthen its data security. 
 
 
 Funding and financials
 
 
 In June 2022, Guild Education reportedly raised 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/10883">
 USD 175 million in a Series F 
 </a>
 funding round led by Wellington Management. It planned to use the funds to expand into in-demand markets such as healthcare, childcare solutions, and career assessments. The company’s valuation rose to USD 4.4 billion from USD 3.75 billion a year ago. The company also reported that its annual recurring revenue (ARR) was more than USD 100 million in FY2020.
 
</div>

Guild Education

<div>
 
 Strivr has developed a virtual reality (VR) product for workplace training that simulates real-world and on-the-job situations. Strivr was incubated at Stanford University when co-founder and CEO Derek Belch developed a VR application in 2014 to help football players train off the field. The company's focus later shifted to workplace training. Its products combine interactive 360-degree videos with computer-generated scenarios in which trainees must actively participate. Strivr exclusively uses Oculus headsets for its VR experiences. As of March 2020, Strivr’s 22,000 VR headsets in operation had registered 1.6 million sessions.
 
 
 In 2017, Strivr partnered with Walmart to bring VR instruction 200 “Walmart Academy” instruction centers and all Walmart stores. In March 2021, Bank of America announced that it was rolling out Strivr’s VR product to thousands of employees across its 4,000 banks after a pilot program with about 400 employees. The bank plans to incorporate VR into its corporate learning program, “The Academy,” and apply the technology across a range of training areas such as notary services, fraud detection, and practicing empathy with customers.
 
 
 In April 2022, Strivr raised 
 <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/9834">
 USD 35 million in a funding round
 </a>
 led by Georgian Partners and will use the funds for platform development. The company also announced that it is part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, a program focused on investing in developers of disruptive technologies. Additionally, the company is part of the Workday Software Partner Program, with plans to integrate its technology with Workday Content Cloud. 
 
</div>

Strivr

<div>
 
 Torch Leadership Labs is a leadership development platform founded by coaches, psychologists, entrepreneurs, and people managers. Torch conducts 360-degree interviews with executives, their direct reports, and peers, and scores them on empathy, visionary thinking, communication, conflict resolution, management, and collaboration. Torch lays out improvement goals and timelines, and arranges video chat sessions with specialized coaches. Sessions remain confidential and only performance goals and metrics are shared with the HR team through a dashboard on the platform. As of April 2020, Torch had worked with more than 10,000 leaders across more than 200 organizations.
 
 
 In April 2020, Torch launched Small Group Coaching, a month-long course that provides personalized coaching to small groups and individuals that also incorporates peer-to-peer learning.
 
 
 Funding and financials 
 
 
 In May 2022, the company raised USD 40 million in a Series C funding round 
 led by 137 Ventures. It planned to use the funds for product development and to scale operations. The round follows its USD 25 million Series B fundraise in February 2021.
 
</div>

Torch Leadership Labs

Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality technologies create immersive and interactive learning experiences

Technologies use algorithms and data analysis to improve employee training and development

LLearning platforms and D&I learning modules to promote a more inclusive and equitable workplace culture

Solutions provide insight into employee performance and areas for improvement

Learning content | Career development includes providers of content libraries and customized courses focusing on learning and developing skills directly related to job roles and careers (including hard skills, soft skills, and skills in demand). Delivery styles are varied and include in-person or virtual classrooms, mobile learning, and micro-learning. A variety of technologies may be employed such as video-based learning, artificial intelligence-based (AI-based) and adaptive learning, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR).

EduMe

EdTech: Corporate Learning

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EduMe raises USD 20 million in Series B funding

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