Participated · Series C · Sep 2023

Transfr provides virtual reality simulations paired with a digital coach to deliver hands-on workforce training and career-development courses, with a focus on middle-skills jobs. Its platform is used by government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, community organizations, workforce development groups, K-12 schools and higher-education institutions. The company reports installations in more than 1,000 U.S. locations, has facilitated almost 400,000 training simulations, operates in over 40 states, and says its customer base more than doubled year-over-year from 2019 to 2023. Transfr monetizes via a software-as-a-service licensing fee; customers must also acquire headsets (notably Meta’s Oculus Quest with Oculus for Business) to use the platform. The company plans to scale the platform, build out its executive team, invest in new training simulations across a wider range of skills and scenarios, and expand Spanish-language offerings and overall content. Founder and CEO Bharani Rajakumar, whose prior company LearnBop was acquired by K12 in 2014, leads the company’s partnerships with educational and workforce organizations. Transfr VR builds virtual and augmented reality simulations that simulate on-the-job training in fully immersive, 360-degree environments. Delivered with employers, colleges, and workforce development organizations, its simulations include a pre-programmed digital coach to enable hands-on, distraction-free training. The company serves industries including automotive, aerospace, advanced manufacturing, health care, and construction. Over five years Transfr expanded from customers in a single state to partners in 36 states and the District of Columbia, and nearly 300 organizations now use its platform. More than 10,000 incumbent workers, job-seekers, and students have accessed its simulations. The company recently completed a $35 million Series B financing led by Lumos Capital Group. TRANSFR VR builds simulation-based, hands-on training experiences using virtual reality to prepare people for technical and skilled-trade roles. The company’s platform pairs curriculum and assessment tools with headsets (the article cites Oculus Quest with Oculus for Business) to recreate on-the-job experiences. TRANSFR says its programs are aimed at boosting economic mobility in regions with acute skills gaps and unemployment and are already used by workforce agencies, schools, colleges, and employers. Customers and partners named in the article include Lockheed Martin, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, and statewide partnerships in Alabama through AIDT and the Alabama Community College System under the JumpstartAL initiative. The company emphasizes connecting schools, workplaces, and governments to make technical careers more accessible and to open pathways to higher wages. TRANSFR was recognized in January 2020 as a “2020 Innovator to Watch” by nonprofit JFF.

Led · Series C · Aug 2023

Disprz provides an AI-powered suite that combines a learning management system, a learning experience platform, and frontline enablement offerings. The company serves over 350 organizations and has established a presence on every continent. Notable customers include Thrasio, Amazon, and Mint Dentistry. Leadership includes CEO Subbu Viswanathan and COO Kuljit Chadha. Disprz plans to expand its global team and hire data scientists, skilling scientists, and engineers to strengthen product capabilities. It also intends to form strategic partnerships and pursue acquisitions across the broader learning ecosystem, including HCM players, people-reward platforms, learning content providers, and assessment vendors. Disprz offers an AI-powered learning, skilling and career-mobility platform for enterprises, providing cloud-based learning management and skills-based learning experience solutions. The company says it has helped more than 275 global organizations and crossed 2 million users across six continents. Disprz plans to use new funding to accelerate expansion in the US and UK, with increased hiring and marketing. It was founded by Subramanian Viswanathan and Kuljit Chadha and is positioning itself as a leading provider of enterprise learning and enablement in emerging Asia. The team previously built a product for the education sector (K12+university) and achieved a healthy exit, per the article. Disprz is a Chennai, India–based software-as-a-service skill-development and employee engagement platform. It offers an AI-powered right-skilling suite designed to help enterprises enable organization-wide skilling and unlock business potential. The company was founded in 2015 by Subramanian Viswanathan and Kuljit Chadha. Disprz has been recognized as a minicorn by Tracxn and won the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Innovation Challenge 2020. In November 2021 Disprz raised $13 million in a Series B to fund growth. The company plans to use the proceeds to scale product and engineering teams, establish a sales and marketing division in the US, expand into Southeast Asia and the Middle East, and build industry-specific product solutions. Disprz offers a cloud-based, AI-powered learning and development platform using a subscription "Learning-as-a-Service" (LaaS) approach that spans HR analytics, talent management, organisational development, and digital platform adoption. The platform combines human learning components with advanced AI algorithms to deliver end-to-end skilling, from skill identification and gap analysis to digital delivery and impact measurement. Disprz serves customers across industries — including Amazon, Petronas, GE Aviation, Tata Motors, and Standard Chartered Bank — and its platform is customizable for different geographies. The company reports serving over 750,000 learners and says its user base has been doubling every year. With recent funding, Disprz plans to expand in the SEA region and hire additional team members to support its growing customer base. The startup positions itself as a skilling partner for large enterprises and MNCs facing rapid digitisation of L&D. Disprz is a SaaS edtech platform focused on enterprise and online learning, aimed at helping workforces integrate knowledge into daily work. The platform offers a multilingual app and leverages social, mobile, cloud and analytics to make employees more knowledgeable and productive. It was rechristened from Learntron in July last year and was founded in 2105 by Subramanian Viswanathan (CEO) and Kuljit Chadha. The company has early US clients and plans to go deeper into the US market. Proceeds from the new round will be used to ramp up data science capabilities and expand operations overseas. Disprz was also selected for Oracle's Startup Cloud Accelerator program in Mumbai.

Participated · Series C · Apr 2021

OpenClassrooms is an edtech platform that provides over 1,000 online courses and focuses on affordable upskilling and reskilling programs. The company reports more than 1 million members and approximately 3 million users visiting the platform each month. Founded in 2012 and based in Paris, OpenClassrooms aims to expand its global impact by increasing access to its programs. The firm said the additional capital will allow it to increase its impact by enabling more individuals to access affordable upskilling and reskilling programs at a global level. Financially, OpenClassrooms raised $80 million in this third round and has raised $149.7 million to date. Investors named in the article include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Lumos Capital, GSV Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and prior backers such as General Atlantic, Alven, Bpifrance, Citizen Capital, and Xavier Niel. Founded in 2013 by Pierre Dubuc and Mathieu Nebra, OpenClassrooms is a Paris-based online higher education platform that teaches sought-after skills at an affordable price. The platform offers over 300 proprietary certifications and more than 32 bachelor’s and master’s level degree programs in areas such as web and mobile development, UX design, data science, and digital marketing. It is an official private distance learning establishment registered with the French Education Ministry (Rectorat de Paris) and grants its own degrees as well as those of academic partners. OpenClassrooms reports approximately 3 million monthly unique users. The company has formed partnerships with Orange to train people in Africa and with Capgemini to launch an online apprenticeship program. It plans to use new funding to accelerate expansion of its program offerings, corporate and government partnerships, and international presence. OpenClassrooms develops and runs a platform of MOOCs that are free and open to everyone. The platform is supported by school, university and business partners and a community of 1,800,000 members. It offers 1,200 courses and attracts over 3.5 million students every month on its website. A premium service provides students with unlimited access to course certifications, video and ebook downloads, and the option to learn at their own pace. The company plans to use the new funding to continue hiring and to expand operations in the higher education sector. OpenClassrooms was founded in 2013 by Mathieu Nebra and Pierre Dubuc and is based in Paris, France.

Led · Equity · Apr 2021

OnlineMedEd is a digital healthcare learning platform that helps aspiring physicians and healthcare professionals gain practical clinical knowledge for everyday practice. The platform uses a four-step learning process: priming with written material, acquiring knowledge through video, challenging concepts with questions and cases, and reinforcing learning via spaced-repetition flashcards. Its proprietary library is created in partnership with universities, specialists, and laboratories and is used by over 300,000 learners in 193 countries. In 2020 OnlineMedEd launched Crash Course, a free suite of video tutorials that helped more than 30,000 redeployed healthcare professionals get up to speed on critical care. The company also offers modules such as CaseX, an immersive cases platform with interactive patient videos and clinical data, and a Nutrition program provided free to institutions. OnlineMedEd plans to use the new capital to expand its existing programs to healthcare professionals around the world. OnlineMedEd is a clinical learning platform led by CEO Jamie Fitch that provides curricula for a wide range of healthcare learners. Its suite of products is used by individual medical students and institutionally by over 50 universities nationally and many more around the world. The platform supports learners across specialties and training levels, including nursing, physician assistants, MDs and DOs. Today the company reports over 350,000 monthly active users. OnlineMedEd intends to use the new funding to expand existing programs to healthcare professionals around the world. The company emphasizes both board-exam preparation and clinical-practice education in its offerings.

Led · Series B · Jan 2021

Ironhack is a Spain-born international tech school that offers intensive bootcamps and immersive courses in web development, UX/UI design, data analytics and cybersecurity. Since 2013 it has graduated more than 8,000 students across campuses in nine cities spanning the US, Europe and Latin America. According to its published student outcomes data, 89% of students have secured a job within 180 days of graduation. The company raised $20 million in a Series B led by Lumos Capital, with participation from the Endeavor Catalyst Fund and prior backers Brighteye and Creas. Ironhack says it will use part of the growth round to develop new courses and program offerings, expand corporate training and talent-acquisition/re-skilling programs, and increase investment in remote learning. The company positions these moves as a response to accelerated digital transformation and rising demand for resilient, remote-capable tech talent amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Ironhack is an international technology school founded in 2013 by Gonzalo Manrique and Ariel Quinones that offers intensive, employment-focused bootcamps (three-month programs) in web development and design. The company has trained over 6,000 students and reports employability rates of roughly 80% at 90 days and 90% at 180 days after program completion. Ironhack operates with about 120 employees and is present in nine cities across Europe, Latin America and North America. Its model emphasizes personalized support to convert people from diverse backgrounds into tech roles in a short time frame. The company plans to use new capital to multiply its impact, reinforce its leadership in European and Latin American markets, expand regional and online presence, and broaden its product and value propositions. The fundraising occurred amid the COVID-19 crisis, which the company and its investors view as increasing demand for digital skills and reskilling. Ironhack is an international tech school and coding bootcamp offering Web Development, UX/UI Design and Data Analytics courses. Led by CEO Ariel Quinones, the company has trained over 3,000 graduates who now work at firms including Visa, Mango, Twitter, Capgemini and Orange. It connects its graduates to over 700 employers, including Facebook and Uber. Ironhack has an international presence with campuses in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Bogotá, Lisbon, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, Munich, Paris and São Paulo. The company has raised a total of $7M to date and recently secured an additional $4M funding round. Ironhack intends to use the new funds to expand internationally. Ironhack operates intensive coding bootcamps offering tech education across multiple campuses, with roots in Madrid where it launched its first program in 2013. The company was founded by Ariel Quinones and Gonzalo Manrique and expanded to Barcelona and Miami in 2014 and 2015, respectively, and opened a campus in Paris earlier this year. Its core product is in-person immersive coding programs targeting students entering the tech workforce. Ironhack raised $3 million in financing to accelerate international expansion, set up new campuses in Latin America and Europe, improve its product and curriculum, and hire talent. The article frames the company within a competitive and contracting U.S. market for coding schools, noting recent closures such as Dev Bootcamp, and states Ironhack aims to be one of the survivors.