Content learning hub hits its stride during COVID-19, raises US$40m
GO1.com has raised more than US$40 million in a Series C funding in a round led by SEEK and Madrona Venture Group, as well as new investor Salesforce Ventures and existing investors M12, Microsoft's venture fund, and Our Innovation Fund.
The company states funding will be used to increase market expansion in North America as well as expand its content provider partner network in direct response to the increased demand for the platform.
Following the swell of people around the globe moving to online learning in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the content-focused platform, which delivers on demand training and certifications, stated it has tripled usage and engagement.
Furthermore, over the past year, GO1 has doubled the number of organisations using the platform in Australia.
GO1 CEO Andrew Barnes says, "GO1's growth over the last couple of months has been unprecedented and the use of online tools for training is now undergoing a structural shift.
"It is gratifying to fill an important void right now as workers embrace online solutions. We are inspired about the future that we are building as we expand our platform with new mediums that reach millions of people every day with the content they need.
Prior to the funding announcement, GO1 launched an integration with Microsoft Teams, which enables organisations using Teams to learn directly within their workplace ecosystem.
Due to the integration, individuals can now find, consume, share, and discuss learning resources from GO1's library of online learning resources, the company states.
Microsoft corporate vice president and M12 global head Nagraj Kashyap says, "GO1 has been critical for business continuity as organisations navigate the remote realities of COVID-19.
"The GO1 integration with Microsoft Teams offers a seamless learning experience at a time when 75 million people are using the application daily. We're proud to invest in a solution helping keep employees learning and businesses growing through this time.
Other investors also commented on the funding round.
Madrona Venture Group managing director S. Somasegar says, "We met GO1 many months before COVID-19 was on the tip of everyone's tongue and were impressed then with the growth of the platform and the ability of the team to expand their corporate training offering significantly in North America and Europe.
"The global pandemic has only increased the need to both provide training and retraining and also to do it remotely. GO1 is an important link in the chain of recovery.
As part of the funding Somasegar will join the GO1 board of directors, GO1 states.
Salesforce Ventures head of Australia Rob Keith says, "We are excited about partnering with GO1 as it looks to scale its online training platform globally.
"While the majority of corporate learning is done in person today, we believe the new digital imperative will see an acceleration in the shift to online learning tools. We believe GO1 fits well into the Trailhead ecosystem and our vision of creating the life-long learner journey.
SEEK managing director corporate development Ronnie Fink says, "GO1 are leaders in helping employees to connect with up-skilling and reskilling opportunities across a broad range of industries.
"We are pleased to support their growth as they continue to move into new markets and offer even more courses to workers.
GO1 serves as the hub of the learning ecosystem, connecting to learning management systems and content providers to enable organisations to deliver their own learning content, or popular third-party content, in their everyday systems.
GO1's key differentiator is its platform can integrate into existing systems and provide a learning library from different providers to ensure learners have access to resources.
In an effort to support employees during this time, GO1 has made all COVID-19 related learning resources available for free, available via the courses page on the GO1 site.
