SALT LAKE CITY — March 22, 2022 — Learn In, the pioneering platform that helps companies establish their own Talent Academies, today announced that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding to provide companies solutions for helping employees build deeper skills precisely aligned to company growth and success.
The round was led by Firework Ventures, a leading venture firm investing in human-centered Future of Work companies. New investors Kickstart Fund, as well as existing investors GSV Ventures and Album Ventures also participated to assist Learn In’s mission to help companies establish Talent Academies that steer all the resources needed for building an always-skilled workforce.
Learn In will use the new capital to expand their technology platform, go-to-market team and customer success capabilities as demand from companies to deploy their own Talent Academies continues to grow. In-house Talent Academies are built from Learn In’s unique platform that helps companies solve their biggest current and future business challenges by first modernizing access to learning budgets and world-class programs, and then by simplifying the delivery of custom programs to employee groups. Learn In’s solutions are viewed as a critical resource by many HR, Talent and L&D leaders who are recognizing that pre-pandemic tools and processes are insufficient for the talent wars and the future of work.
“Across every organization, skill-building needs to continue to expand beyond the outdated models of ‘In-the-flow-of-work’ micro-learning, or under-used licensed content. Listening to a course doesn’t turn you into a data scientist, just as watching a CrossFit video doesn’t turn you into an athlete,” said David Blake, co-founder and CEO of Learn In. “Companies must begin to undertake the work of creating ‘athletes’ — i.e. actually engaging in the task of upskilling, which is what we are enabling with Talent Academies.”
Amid COVID-19 and the Great Resignation, digital transformation has sped up with companies struggling not only to close skill gaps through hiring, but retain the workers they already have. Workhuman’s most recent survey showed that 4 in 10 employees are now flight risks in 2022 — nearly double that of its 2019 survey. Another recent survey by Prudential found that 80% of those switching jobs are doing so because they’re concerned about career advancement, while 72% of these workers want to switch jobs to acquire new skills. Leaders are taking note. A new Gartner report revealed that 59% of HR leaders have placed building skills and competencies at the top of the list of priorities in 2022.
With these trends in mind, Learn In will empower organizations to develop new pathways for training and advancement to stay competitive and avoid the time, costs and general loss of productivity that occurs when employees leave. Learn In provides the mechanism for businesses to steer all of their resources to help meet worker demands and changing skill needs.
“In previous eras, technological change has often helped to improve the lives of more people but automation, digitization, and AI are threatening job prospects,” said Ashley Bittner, co-founder, Firework Ventures. “Tomorrow’s most successful companies will be those that help talent gain the skills to do rewarding, meaningful work and we believe Learn In is well positioned to help workers find both higher pay and higher purpose.”
Learn In’s core features include a prepaid learning stipend card, a world-class program marketplace and custom program builder, a tuition benefits manager, and dedicated coaching. Learn In successfully tackles the issues associated with outdated learning platforms by placing a premium on precision, personalization, and transparency so that every employee and organization can maximize learning outcomes. Learn In currently works with mid-market to large sized companies with a pipeline heavily focused on financial service clients, industries undergoing transformations like manufacturing and fast growing companies who are rapidly hiring.
“This year, like never before, upskilling and reskilling our people is imperative to deliver business results and we’re excited to use Learn In to build custom learning tracks for critical needs, such as onboarding, digital commerce capabilities and leadership skills,” said Jen Collins, former VP Learning & Development at Advantage Solutions. “For example, we built a fully-custom Onboarding program in a matter of hours when it used to take us months to navigate all the internal systems because Learn In has created the optimal training solution for our needs.”
About Learn In
Learn In helps companies establish talent academies that steer all the resources needed for building a highly skilled workforce. HR, Talent and L&D leaders use Learn In to modernize access to learning budgets and world-class programs, and to simplify the delivery of custom programs to employee groups. Learn In’s core features include a tuition benefits manager, a prepaid learning stipend card, a world-class program marketplace and custom program builder, and dedicated coaching. Now every employee can build deeper skills precisely aligned to company needs. Co-founded by the founders of Degreed, Learn In is backed by leading edtech & future-of-work investors, including Firework Ventures, Kickstart Fund, Album, GSV, and Village Global, and has been covered in CNBC, USA Today, EdTechReview, EdSurge, Fast Company, and Techcrunch.
