Edtech startup HowNow has just secured €4.6 million ($5 million) for its learning and experience platform, helping teams upskill and learn together. It comes as companies around the world increasingly see the importance of retaining talent and developing their teams’ skills.
Upskilling employees and giving teams a chance to learn and grow together is a way to not only enhance employee experience and satisfaction but, also help businesses grow. It allows in-house talent to be retained and means they can build the knowledge and skills needed to drive the company’s success – a win-win for all. Traditionally, though, workplace coaching has been pretty lacklustre, and not so relevant for the world of remote and hybrid working.
UK-based HowNow is on a mission to shake things up, aiming to make employee learning more engaging and collaborative – fit for the modern world. The company has just secured a new investment and reflects growth in the market, which has boomed over recent years, can be expected to continue this year.
The startup secured €4.6 million ($5 million) from Mercia Asset Management and the world’s leading learning company, Pearson. Since its initial seed funding two years ago, the company has doubled in revenue and onboarded over 100 organisations in more than 150 countries.
Nelson Sivalingam, CEO and Co-founder at HowNow: “In the era of exponential change, equipping people with the knowledge and skills to be successful at what they do at speed is one of the biggest challenges we face. Without such continuous development, individuals and organisations risk becoming socially and economically obsolete. The traditional LMS is not fit for the demands of the modern workforce. With HowNow, we’re excited to be defining how people learn in this new world of work. We’re delighted to welcome Mercia and Pearson Ventures onboard as investors to help us hopefully build one of the most important companies of our time.”
Founded in 2016, HeyNow’s learning experience platform (LXP) helps companies onboard, upskill and support employees faster, regardless of where they work. The start rests on the belief that learning is a fundamental part of driving business performance and a critical part of empowering companies to engage, retain and develop their best people. The company reports engagement rates that are 5 times higher than the average.
The UK-based company brings learning and development into one space to connect every employee with learning opportunities, skills and knowledge in the flow of work. So far, it has been used for companies such as Depop, Vanmoof, Permutive, and Checkout.com as well as by enterprise clients like Mercer, Telenor, Sanofi and Investec.
Now with this new investment, the company is planning its international expansion. HowNow will also continue developing features that scale knowledge sharing, make it easier to measure impact and connect learning and skills to the overall employee experience.
Daniela Tsoneva, Investor at Mercia, said: “Daniela Tsoneva, Investor at Mercia: “We are excited to support Nelson and his team in their quest to transform workplace learning. HowNow’s dynamic matching technology ensures users receive the right learning content at the right time. The company is a pioneer in the relatively new but fast-growing learning experience sector and has the potential to become a market leader. The funding will help it expand its global footprint and continue its rapid growth trajectory.”
Pedro Vasconcellos, VP Pearson Ventures: “Pearson Ventures is pleased to join forces with HowNow, an exciting Workforce learning company, to support their growth and explore ways to work together. Their strategy to leverage data to enable the employee to take control of their learning experience and career development has interesting potential for the future of workforce learning.”