Founded in 2018, Sharpist is a people development solution focusing on 1:1 digital coaching sessions. The edtech startup has just announced the close of a €20 million Series A funding round for its vision to provide personalized learning for every employee worldwide.
The Series A was co-led by Endeit Capital and Capnamic with participation from selected business angels, including the former VP of Workplace at Meta Julien Codorniou, French venture studio Founders Future, and Porsche Ventures, the venture capital unit of Sharpist’s customer Porsche AG, and existing investors Vorwerk Ventures and btov Partners.
The corporate learning and development market is growing, and fast. It’s currently thought to be worth over $300 billion, and with the ongoing war for talent, it’s only going to get bigger. Sharpist provides companies with personal business coaches from an international network of certified coaches via its mobile and web app, supplemented with personalized learning content.
The Berlin-based company is helping its clients overcome recruitment and staffing challenges and meet upcoming goals, such as managing and executing transitions, investing and int talent development to generate better business results, and reducing staff turnover by keeping their people more engaged, motivated and integrated into the long-term plans of the company.
According to the young startup, they have an unrivalled learner engagement of over 90%. They attribute this to their dedication to customer success. Alongside this is the quality of the coaching and the matching process that underpins the platform. Learners are paired with the optimal coach for them based on the learner’s focus areas, insights from a team of psychologists and input from its algorithm.
Sharpist coaches are certified by highly reputable organizations, have extensive management and executive experience, and have over 10 years of coaching practice. Upholding our inclusion and diversity principles, our global community of coaches possess a variety of personal and professional backgrounds and offer coaching sessions in over 30 languages.
Since its launch, Sharpist has had an exciting journey and already clients such as STRABAG, Franke, and Otto Group are using the platform to retain and grow talent. At the end of 2021, Zalando, Metro, and BASF joined the impressive customer roster.
The fresh funding comes as Sharpist has its eyes set firmly on expansion, and will help fuel the mission to drive the growth of businesses through coaching and personalized learning journeys. Sharpist plans to double the size of its 100-people strong team in 2022, cementing its position as a leader in the digital coaching market. The edtech startup will also focus on accelerating growth across Europe and product development with a focus on product experience. and product development with a focus on product experience.
Hendrik Schriefer, CEO and Co-Founder of Sharpist: “The fresh capital allows us to further invest in our industry-defining product experience and gradually position Sharpist as the market leader for digital coaching in Europe. We plan to bring our leading coaching and people development experience to other promising regions, starting with the UK and Ireland. We are excited to partner with our new investors Endeit Capital, Capnamic, and Porsche Ventures on our mission to become the leading platform for career and people development – we will substantially benefit from their vast experience in building strong, multi-national leaders.”
