E-learning platform Degreed to sharpen India focus after raising $75 mn

Degreed, a learning and skill-tracking platform for professionals, has raised $35 million (Rs 245 crore) in equity funding from existing investors Owl Ventures, Jump Capital, Signal Peak Ventures and GSV Accelerate, along with new investor Alliance Bernstein. 

A company statement said that California-based Degreed has also closed a $40 million (Rs 280 crore) venture debt round from Alliance Bernstein Growth Stage Capital. 

With this inflow of capital, Degreed said it will focus on international expansion, including to India, Singapore and Australia. The company also plans to enhance its skills measurement and insights functionality, and significantly strengthen integration, data science, and client enablement capabilities.

According to the statement, over the last year, Degreed has grown its revenues by more than 100%, doubled the size of the company’s sales and client experience teams, merged and integrated its largest competitor, Pathgather, and added nearly 100 new clients to its over 220-organisation client list that includes innovators like Cognizant, Conduent, Asian Paints, Atlassian, Imperial Brands, Unilever, and TELUS International.

“Today, 20% of our revenue comes from outside the United States and in India alone, we have doubled headcount,” said Degreed CEO Chris McCarthy.  

“This additional capital will allow us to create more market awareness in the Asia Pacific region, and further execute on the roadmap and commitments we laid out at the beginning of the year. We are doubling down on our skills product and the data science and machine learning capabilities to support it.  We will continue to invest heavily in our industry leading client enablement teams,” he added.

Degreed was launched in 2012 by David Blake and Eric Sharp. It is an e-learning platform that enables users to discover learning content, build skills, and certify their expertise. 

Deals in the segment

• June 2019: Thiruvananthapuram-based ed-tech startup ConceptOwl raised Rs 3.5 crore (around $500,000) from seed-stage investment platform Indian Angel Network.
• March 2019: Quiz-based learning edtech startup iChamp raised pre-Series A funding from Raju Shukla, chief executive officer at Singapore-based Ariana Investment Management.
• March 2019: Ed-tech unicorn Byju's raised $4.76 million (Rs 33.2 crore then) in a fresh round of funding from existing investor and New York-headquartered private equity firm General Atlantic as its valuation crossed $5 billion.