After making three acquisitions and tripling in revenue since its 2021 funding round, Dutch startup Lepaya now strengthens its position as one of the largest corporate edtech providers in EMEA by raising €36 million, one of the biggest rounds raised in this space in all of 2023. The investment round was led by Endeit and joined by Educapital, Mars Growth Capital, and Liquidity Capital, as well as the existing investors Target Global and Mediahuis Ventures.
With the newly acquired capital, Lepaya will double down on the development and go-to-market of the AI-driven capability development platform poised to redefine the way global organizations such as ING, Dell, Maersk, KPMG Freudenberg, and the rest of its 2000 clients identify, close and track skills gaps.
Lepaya is an upskilling solution that focuses on increasing talent retention and productivity through a blend of online, offline, and virtual reality training through an all-in-one capability platform. Founded by René Janssen and Peter Kuperus in 2018 with the perspective that the right training, at the right time, focused on the right skill, makes organizations productive and enables overall business growth.
René Janssen, CEO and Founder of Lepaya, said: “The rapid developments in AI allow us to provide organizations and the world with what we always had envisioned, and individual employees with what they deserve: a deeply personal insight in skill gaps, and a truly contextualized way to bridge them; by combining the best artificial and human intelligence, and taking care of all the complex operations surrounding global upskilling programs.”
Lepaya’s €36 million investment marks a pivotal moment in corporate upskilling. By bridging the gap between emerging skill needs and organizational readiness, Lepaya pioneers a future where businesses thrive in the face of change.
Lepaya combines artificial and human intelligence to ensure that employees acquire the skills needed to remain effective and productive, in the flow of their daily work. With this new investment round Lepaya is making additional investments in AI tools such as AI-coach which will adjust the learning content to an individual learner’s context and career level. Further investments will be made to advance the skills data analysis so that the organizations and their leaders reach deeper skills intelligence on organizational and industry levels.
Edwin Hengstmengel, from Endeit Capital, commented: “It’s impressive how Lepaya managed to engrain its platform as a core part of its client’s upskilling DNA, and we are very excited to be part of the continued journey.”
Deep integrations in enterprise HCM solutions allow organizations to effectively roll out the capability development platform to employees at the career moments where upskilling is crucial to having a direct impact on business performance and outcomes. This way Lepaya’s AI SkillsOps features will ensure that all global L&D operations are taken care of.
Jonathan Denais, from Educapital, added: “In the tight labor market corporates struggle with workforce planning. What we love about Lepaya’s platform is that it does not only identify skill gaps but provides a scalable way for the enterprise to upskill people – and to keep promoting their internal talent.”
