Edtech startup Junto has just secured €5 million in Seed funding for its digital learning platform. The Berlin-based team is taking a holistic approach to learning, combining tech with interactive, live experiences and a learner community.
The world of work has been dogged by two major challenges in recent years – a global talent shortage and the ‘great resignation’. While these two phenomena show no sign of fixing themselves, it’s become clear to businesses and organisations that in order to future-proof themselves with a strong and impactful cohort of leaders and talent, they need to develop employees’ skills, across the duration of their career.
Meanwhile, employees expect professional development to come part and parcel with their role. Employees want to progress and develop, to feel part of the growing company, and companies need to facilitate this. It’s brought about a shift in employee/employer relations, and a new wave of edtech and digital learning has sprung up.
Putting its hat into the ring to boost the sector is Junto – the Berlin-based digital learning platform. The startup has today announced a raise of €5 million to grow.
Just three months after picking up €1.2 million from over 40 well-known business angels, the edtech startup has now raised an additional €5 million – an extremely promising reflection of the startup’s potential.
The new capital was led by Earlybird with participation from Picus Capital, Emerge Capital and 10+ top business angels. This is the first time that the company, which was only launched in January, has brought institutional investors on board for further growth.
As the search for talent becomes increasingly competitive and companies have begun to recognise the importance of developing their employee’s skills, digital learning is becoming a fast-growing market.
However, most organizations are still working with an inefficient puzzle of different training providers, freelance coaches and internal learning & development programs. It’s been well proven by incumbent providers of digital learning just how effective it can be, however, learning in business settings is still associated with passive online videos, dull hotel seminars, or local instructors without relevant practical experience. It’s even reported that the market for corporate training remains 90% offline – something Junto is aiming to change.
Founded by Marius Hepp (MD), Johannes Schnell-Kretschmer (MD), and Feliks Eyser (Chairman) in January 2022, Junto’s solution combines a scalable learning platform with interactive online training and a cross-company peer community. What sets Junto further apart is its unique network of international experts who share their hands-on experiences in interactive live sessions, including top executives from Google, Amazon, Adobe, Delivery Hero, Gorillas and N26.
Co-founder Marius Hepp explains: “Our vision goes far beyond a learning platform: With Junto, we democratize the access for talents & organizations across the globe to directly learn from world-class tech operators. This provides them with the opportunity to unleash their full professional potential.”
Key to setting the platform apart from competitors is the pioneering hybrid approach.
With Junto, users access quality online content alongside interactive live experiences and a cohort-based learner community. It’s reported that while less than 13% of the courses started on Udemy, Coursera or LinkedIn Learning are actually finalized, Junto’s cohort-based approach enables a completion rate of over 95%.
Already, Junto has brought on almost 100 corporate clients, including successful scale-ups such as Everphone, Sendinblue or Hive.
Hive’s Head of Human Resources Benjamin Böhmer commented: “In the first months of our partnership with Junto, we were already able to significantly increase the leadership skills, motivation and impact of our team members. Junto offers us a competitive advantage in the war for the best talents.”
It’s only the beginning for Junto though. Founded just this year, and already receiving significant traction with investors and clients, it’s clear the startup has exciting market potential.
This new funding will be used to accelerate building the team up, developing the proprietary software platform, as well as broadening the content and instructor exosystem.
Co-founder Johannes Schnell-Kretschmer, said: “Our new Seed financing round is an important step to realize this vision: In addition to the unique network of our 50+ business angels, the capital and experience of Earlybird, Picus Capital and Emerge Education will allow us to accelerate the execution of our strategy.”
Paul Klemm, Partner at Earlybird said: ”Talent development is key for the long-term success of every company. Yet, B2B education has remained largely unchanged for decades. We are convinced that Junto’s operator-driven and community-based approach will make corporate learning significantly more effective and are excited to partner with the team on their journey to empower professionals and organizations globally.”
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