Rotterdam-based KPN Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of KPN, announced on Monday, April 24, that it has invested in educational content subscription services startup Perlego and cybersecurity scenario training startup RangeForce.
According to a statement, both companies can be an important addition to KPN’s offering to its customers.
What does Perlego and RangeForce offer?
Founded in 2017 by Gauthier Van Malderen and Matt Davis, Perlego aims to make education accessible to everybody. The startup’s ‘all-you-can-read’ concept has earned it the moniker “Spotify for academic material”.
Perlego claims to be the world’s largest online subscription service for educational content, with access to over 1,000,000 textbooks from a variety of publishers. Students can use the company’s subscription model directly (B2C) or indirectly (B2B2C) through colleges and universities.
In the Consumer Market, KPN’s partner portfolio is expanding and now includes Perlego in addition to Netflix, Spotify, and Disney+.
Virginia, US-based RangeForce, which was founded in 2019 by Taavi Must, Jaanus Kink and Margus Ernits, offers a development platform that aims to improve cyber skills for individuals and teams.
The platform enables businesses to evaluate their security teams and offer individualised learning courses and team activities to upskill much-needed cybersecurity skills.
According to RangeForce, its modules and activities are updated often to offer a wide selection of pertinent topics and tools. The company may be a useful tool for both KPN staff members and KPN’s (larger) clients.
About KPN Ventures
Since 2015, KPN Ventures has backed 25 technology firms and realised 11 investments in other funds that target scale-ups and startups in the European technology sector.
The firm claims to have been successful in establishing long-term alliances that are advantageous to KPN and have accelerated the innovation and expansion of the portfolio firms.
KPN Ventures’ investments range from €1M to €5M for minority stakes, building long-term partnerships, and ultimately aiming for external exits, not acquisitions.
Hans Söhngen, MD of KPN Ventures, says, “KPN’s investment fund invests in promising startups and scaleups with strategic relevance for KPN. Supporting the growth of the companies concerned but also increasing KPN’s innovative strength.”
“We help accelerate the development of innovative products and applications of startups. This way we can enable KPN customers and society to benefit even faster from useful innovations and smart product solutions,” adds Söhngen.
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