Australia's Go1 raises $100m at $2b valuation

Salesforce Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, and Five Sigma, an Australian education technology fund, also participated.

It follows a USD 200m Series D last year led by Vision Fund 2, AirTree, and Salesforce that also featured Blue Cloud, Madrona, Microsoft’s M12 venture fund, Seek Investments, Y Combinator, Larsen Ventures, and Ten13. That round valued the company at USD 1bn.

The company has raised more than USD 400m since its inception in 2015, with previous investors also including the likes of Oxford University, Our Innovation Fund, January Capital, Transition Level Investments, Amasia, Black Sheep Capital, Blue Sky Private Equity, Full Circle Venture Capital, and Tank Stream Ventures.

Go1’s artificial intelligence (AI) platform provides employee training and talent management products to corporate learning content creators and corporations, who in turn offer various workplace management services to their employees with a single subscription. The company calls itself a world leader in online learning with more than 5m users, most of whom are outside of Australia.

North America has recently emerged as the largest market, although there has been significant traction in Europe with the acquisition of French and German-language counterpart Coorpacademy. Meanwhile, Go1 has expanded its Southeast Asia footprint with offices in Malaysia and Singapore. It has also recently expanded its content offering through partnerships with video training company Pluralsight and Harvard Business Publishing.

“Digital transformation and the changing world of work have amplified the need for companies to invest in their people and up-level their capabilities,” Peter Mobbs, founding partner of Five Sigma, said in a statement. “Go1 is uniquely suited to help companies tackle this challenge with a comprehensive solution for workplace learning content.

The investment coincides with several executive leadership appointments to the executive leadership team, including a chief people office, chief marketing office, chief data officer, and a senior vice president for product management. Earlier this year, Go1 confirmed Marc Havercroft, formerly chief customer officer of SAP SuccessFactors, as president. Havercroft is leading the global expansion drive.

“Go1 has built a platform that serves the needs of both employers looking to retain and upskill their talent and employees seeking training for their professional and personal development,” S. Somasegar, a managing director at Madrona, added.

“Go1’s successful expansion into the US and other global markets means they not only serve global corporations but are uniquely suited for the far-flung remote workforces of the next decade.”

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• Topics
• Australasia
• Expansion
• Support services
• Media
• Australia
• AirTree Ventures
• Softbank
• Education
• TMT
• professional services