Ed App, a mobile-first technology company that facilitates more than 35,000 micro lessons daily, has announced it has raised $4 million from workplace solutions tech company, SafetyCulture.
Ed App is best known for its on-demand microlearning platform which offers companies across all industries a more effective way to onboard, motivate, and train employees.
CEO and founder, Darren Winterford said technology has changed the way people consume content and that traditional methods of training and onboarding employees were no longer effective.
“Given 80% of smartphones never leave a person’s side, companies are discovering that mobile-first learning is now the most effective way to engage employees,” he said.
Over the last 12 months, the platform has grown exponentially, and now facilitates more than 35,000 lessons daily for leading global companies like Mercedes Benz, Mars, Eli Lilly, Honda, Shell, Pandora and Castrol.
Business growth has been driven by the millennial workforce, which is currently the largest market segment (35% of employees in the US), increased smartphone penetration, and an improved understanding of what effective workplace training looks like.
CEO Darren Winterford said the $4M funding will be used to continue Ed App’s expansion overseas, ramp up expansion in Australia, further build out its product offering and grow its learning design and app development team.
“With 80% of our clients based outside of Australia, SafetyCulture’s investment will help us accelerate our plans to grow our customer base locally and continue to expand in the US and Europe,” he added.
Luke Anear, founder at SafetyCulture and recently appointed board member of Ed App, said he was impressed by Ed App’s existing client base and how the platform offered wide scale on-demand training.
“When I was introduced to Ed App I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of. It’s an exciting SaaS business tackling an underserviced part of the market. Finding an effective learning management system is crucial for any business and the fact that Ed App have gone one step further and coupled this with an on-demand mobile-first learning solution is game-changing. We are excited to be part of their journey,” said Anear.
Dynamic Business had a chat with Winterford about the capital raise and future plans.
How do you feel about completing the capital raise?
I feel an enormous sense of pride in the work the team has put into developing the platform. We have some extremely talented engineering, learning and customer teams at Ed App who have come together to create something truly great. So, pride is certainly the first emotion.
There is also a sense of validation and an enormous sense of optimism. Knowing that our vision was correct in creating a mobile-first learning platform that uses gamification and microlearning to help people increase their chances of knowledge retention is very reassuring.
Finally, we are very excited to have funding to help us continue to take this great platform further into the corporate community.
What will this capital be used for?
The capital will be used for two main areas:
First, engineering. We have a group of very progressive customers who believed in us and came on board early. They have contributed significantly to the product roadmap and continue to push us to deliver the best learning platform on the market. Our community is very passionate about better learning and we want to be able to support them in their drive for better education. This round enables us to push further into those areas which is fantastic.
Second, awareness. We are especially proud of our success to date as we have done it all without too much noise. We have been too busy! This capital will enable us to bring Ed App to the wider L&D community with some key hires and A&P spend. We want to ensure all employees know Ed App is something their respective company could deploy, enjoy and use to further their skills and careers.
What tips do you have for other companies wanting to follow your lead?
I think the customer first mantra still applies here. We built Ed App to solve a very real problem we identified in corporate learning. Despite the usual roadblocks and barriers we have encountered along the way, we have been able to make a real impact on the market by putting our customers first and building out a solution whose appeal is so compelling and those that deploy it become real advocates.
We have little to no churn, our customers feel like it is a genuine partnership and our team are enthused and motivated by the results.
What is your next plan of action?
We have a long way to go.
Internally, we are continuing to build out fantastic teams across the world so we are working hard on recruiting the best. We really want to be one of the best places to work so we are challenging ourselves there.
Product wise – we have some really exciting initiatives slated for release throughout the remainder of 2018 and early 2019. We are particularly sold on the idea of unlocking the potential of ‘authors’ from all facets of a business. This means not just sharing knowledge from the top down but also from outside of the centre.
