The Dutch online learning platform Studytube has recently received an investment of €10 million from Verdane, the Norwegian investment company that helps successful tech companies to grow further. This will give Verdane a substantial minority interest in Studytube. “With this investment and with our partnership with Verdane, we can realise our ambition to become a European top player in the Learning & Development market,” said Homam Karimi, CEO of Studytube.
How does it work?
Studytube provides companies and governments with an all-in-one learning platform. The technology enables organisations to create and distribute bespoke training content, and the accompanying proprietary online academy offers employees guided and inspirational access to a vast catalogue of third party training and educational programs (both offline and online). Build-in management tools smartly monitor employee development: what are relevant training courses for which employees; are they attending them, and have they obtained compulsory training certificates yet? The Studytube platform shares these insights instantly.
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Studytube is not merely a smart SaaS platform, but functions as a training intermediary as well. As such it offers an inspiring search environment for (online) training, skill development and other educational offerings. Studytube has automated the entire procurement process with over 1.000 educational companies. This helps organisations to significantly reduce time spent on searching, booking, coordinating, invoicing and evaluating training and education. Organizations can save money as well, because Studytube realises purchasing discounts with all affiliated training providers, like LOI, NIMA, De Baak of VCA Nederland.
About €10 million in training was booked via the Studytube platform in 2020 alone, with customers receiving cumulatively more than 1 million euros in purchasing discounts. Studytube realised a turnover growth of 755 percent in the past 4 years. Over the past 3 years, the learning platform has consistently been in the top 20 of the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 – the ranking of the 50 fastest-growing tech companies in the Netherlands. Currently, more than 200 organisations with a total of about 500,000 employees use Studytube. Customers include VolkerWessels, Manpower, ASR, Adecco, Port of Rotterdam, the Province of Gelderland and numerous municipalities, including the municipality of Groningen.
Expand and optimise further
Homam Karimi, Studytube CEO: “We would like to continue our exponential growth and we believe that the best product is the key. That is why we continue to invest in our people, further product development and we want to further expand and optimise the learning offer that we make available through Studytube for our customers. It is logical that we now bring Verdane on board as an investor, who invests in more than 40 tech companies, including a number of Human Capital Management software companies. We can learn a lot from the VC’s prolific experience. In addition, we bring a wealthy partner on board with Verdane, which gives us access to subsequent investments for acquisitions, for example. Verdane is the ideal partner for us to realise our international ambition to become a top-3 player in the European market in the field of Learning & Development. ”
Iikka Moilanen, responsible for the investment in Studytube at Verdane: “Studytube has so far shown excellent growth figures in the Netherlands with innovative technology and a strong proposition. Since innovation is in Studytube’s DNA and the product is relatively easily scalable, we believe that we can continue these growth figures at the European level. More than ever, companies now need to keep up to date and the best way to do this is to invest in employee development. Studytube makes this much more efficient, easier and cheaper. ”
Main image credits: Studytube
