Brisbane-based online business training marketplace GO1 has seen its valuation double to US$2 billion (A$2.8 billion) after raising another US$100 million.
The raise prompted newly established Sydney edtech investment fund Five Sigma to sign up as a new investor, with existing backers including AirTree Ventures, Blue Cloud Ventures, Madrona, Salesforce Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2 making further contributions.
Past investors include Larsen Ventures, Scott Shleifer and John Curtius of Tiger Global, Steve Baxter’s TEN13, Microsoft’s venture fund M12, SEEK and Y Combinator.
The new capital is earmarked for edtech’s goal of reaching billions of employees with upskilling, reskilling and knowledge lessons. GO1 raised US$200 million (A$273 million) in a Series D earlier in July last year. The company has now raised approximately US$400 million.
North America is now Go1’s largest market and is expanding into Europe following the acquisition of Coorpacademy, which provides French and German language content.
It expanded its reach in Southeast Asia with offices in Malaysia and Singapore, and expanded its content offering to 5 million users with content from Pluralsight and Harvard Business Publishing.
CEO Andrew Barnes said the company has expanded its capabilities and offerings to improve access to education for users.
“These recent investments enable Go1 to build on that momentum to explore new content and resources, enabling our platform to meet the needs of every organization and employee, bringing us closer to our goal of reaching a billion learners.” worldwide,” he said.
Peter Mobbs, founder of Five Sigma, said: “Digital transformation and the changing world of work have increased the need for companies to invest in their people and take their capabilities to the next level. Go1 is ideally suited to help businesses address this challenge with a comprehensive workplace learning content solution. We are proud to have led this latest round of funding.”
Madrona MD S. Somasegar said the platform addresses the needs of both employers seeking talent retention and upskilling and employees seeking training for their professional and personal development.
“Go1’s successful expansion into the US and other global markets means they not only serve global businesses, but are ideally suited to the far-flung workforce of the next decade,” he said.