[Sydney, Australia] HowToo today announced an oversubscribed $2.5m seed funding round led by Moelis Australia with co-investments from Jelix Ventures and Califorian based VC firm ALIAVIA Ventures.
HowToo provides a unique science-based learning intelligence platform that enables anyone with raw content to transform it into powerful and shareable e-learning experiences.
“Now more than ever before organisations need to easily share knowledge and develop skills via online learning but don’t have the time or resources to employ a team of UX designers, learning experts or developers. HowToo was born to democratise the learning creation process and transform the eLearning industry with AI technology at its core. We’ve poured all the expertise we’ve developed from building Australia’s leading digital learning agency, Savv-e, into a platform that will make a difference to the lives of millions of learners and organisations around the world.” Lisa Vincent and Jenny Barltrop, HowToo Founders
EdTech Industry Disruptors
Launching in February 2020, Sydney-based startup HowToo combines science-based design and ease of use to allow workers to capture their experience and knowledge in shareable digital courses, effectively plugging the knowledge drain gap costing businesses millions every year.
In 2020, the Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report found that just 9% of organisations felt ready to create and preserve knowledge across their evolving workforces, despite 75% reporting that this was important for their success.
The B2B SaaS company seeks to disrupt the booming EdTech industry and democratise learning with unique, AI-powered learning creation, search, match and content review capabilities that will deliver the right learning content just when it’s needed in the flow of work.
The strategy is already paying off, with 50 paying customers and 10,000 learners signing onto the platform since the launch in 2020. Many large corporations, universities, SMEs and government agencies have come on board as customers in the first 12 months.
“We believe HowToo has the potential to be a dominant player in the global digital learning space. Lisa and Jenny have demonstrated incredible vision for where the industry is heading, disrupting their own profitable business to build HowToo. We are super excited to be involved as they scale the business globally.” Marisa Warren - Co-Founder & General Partner at ALIAVIA Ventures
Jelix Ventures invests early in innovative technology companies with a strong competitive advantage in a global market. “How Too is challenging industry conventions with innovative AI-powered Ed-tech. Lisa and Jenny with their deep domain expertise, inspire great confidence [in their ability to execute on their plans]. And the pace of customer acquisition is breathtaking! We are proud to back HowToo to realise its ambition [of democratising e-learning and] taking a major global market share.“ Andrea Gardiner, Founder & CEO, Jelix Ventures.
Female Founders
HowToo’s successful funding round represents another milestone for female co-founders Lisa Vincent (CEO) and Jenny Barltrop (CPO). With over fifty years of combined experience in eLearning and one previous successful business venture, gaining investment funding was the natural next step in their business journey.
“We’re proud to have bootstrapped our early product development and growth so far through a large customer pre-sale, investment of Savv-e profits, customer revenue and the help of Federal Government grants Accelerating Commercialisation and Boosting Female Founders Initiative. This round will help us accelerate our global growth plans with top-quality investors Moellis, Jelix and ALIAVIA backing us, a team that shares our passion and provides input, expertise and a global network of valuable contacts.” Lisa Vincent and Jenny Barltrop, HowToo Founders
Future Plans
HowToo will use the funding to scale its growth and move into overseas markets. The global eLearning industry is expected to be worth USD 374.3 Billion by 2026. [source]