HomeFrance-StartupsParis-based edtech startup Simbel secures €4 million to reimagine staff learning and...

Paris-based edtech startup Simbel secures €4 million to reimagine staff learning and development for SMEs

Paris-based edtech startup Simbel has raised a €4 million seed round to help small and medium-sized businesses adapt to a rapidly changing world.

The seed round was led by Speedinvest and edtech-focused investor Brighteye. Participating angels include eFounders co-founder Thibaud Elziere, Figures co-founder Virgile Ringeart, Stupeflix co-founder Nicolas Steegmann, and Prestashop co-founder Alexandre Eruimy.

Speedinvest is a early-stage venture capital firm with more than €600 million in assets under managements and 40 investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. Brighteye Ventures is a leading European Edtech venture capital fund. Leveraging deep experience and relationships in tech, education, media, and VC.

Simbel provides a SaaS enabled marketplace for learning and development (L&D) to keep staff’s knowledge and skills fresh and relevant to their employer’s evolving needs. Businesses’ own materials can be combined with more than 500 pieces of content and courses from top training providers, available directly through Simbel’s integrated marketplace.

Learning and development programs are often unpopular with employees, and are seen as something they’re made to do to check a box, rather than something they can truly benefit from.

Simbel integrates with SMBs’ existing HR stack and uses periodic performance reviews as a starting point for identifying individual learning and development needs. It makes learning and development simple to deliver, allowing SMBs to benefit from the most up-to-date training from the best providers, while helping HR teams streamline all their L&D ops and measure the impact of the training.

HR teams are supposed to inspire teams, create learning rituals, organize internal and external learning sessions, and oversee learning and development. But the reality is that SMBs typically only have one or two people to manage all these activities and still run their L&D on Excel sheets.” explained Simbel CEO and co-founder Loïc Jourdain.

Loïc Jourdain co-founded Simbel with Charles Gras, combining Loïc Jourdain’s experience running business operations at French services marketplace Stootie, and Gras’ experience building L&D solutions for SMBs and corporates.

Charles Gras stated: “As a manager, Loic was spending more and more time identifying L&D needs such as annual reviews, performance reviews, and 360 feedback. But he lacked a tool to implement an L&D action plan, and while working at education platform 360Learning, I’d noticed that most L&D solutions were silos, when SMBs need a simple, all-in-one solution.”

Launching out of beta with €4 million

Simbel launched in 2021 and developed its offering in partnership with its first clients, including Blablacar and Roland Berger, while in beta. But as of today, Simbel is officially out of beta mode and available to every SMB in Europe. The startup has announced the launch of partnerships with the best HR and talent development software platforms for SMBs.

The new funding will be used to accelerate Simbel’s product development. The startup’s ambition is to build the easiest solution for organizations to promote the right learning content at the right time, based on our marketplace data and the organization’s own HR data. the Simbel founders believe that the HR stack of tomorrow will be built upon the solutions that maximize employee development and performance.

Jeroen Arts, Partner at Speedinvest, commented: “To stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing working environment, companies must make sure their employees have the up-to-date skills needed to perform their jobs well. It’s a massive task for any size organization and even more difficult for resource-strapped SMBs. Simbel’s commitment to these historically underserved businesses is making it possible for some 200,000 SMBs in Europe alone to now offer employees world-class learning & development at scale.

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Francesca Romana Piccioli
Francesca Romana Piccioli
Francesca Romana Piccioli is EU-Startups’ Startup Analyst, focusing on data-driven startup research and evaluations. As part of our Startup Sourcing activities, Francesca is working with corporate clients and investors to help them find the most promising startups. With a background in food technology and food innovation Francesca is a curious startup enthusiast, passionate about traveling and getting to know new ideas and products. If you’re interested in our startup sourcing service, reach out to [email protected].
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