Amsterdam-based Lepaya, a soft skill scaleup, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Krauthammer, a Dutch-based company that provides training sessions for individuals and companies.
With this acquisition, Lepaya aims to further advance its mission to connect people’s potential to business impact.
René Janssen, co-CEO of Lepaya, says, “The acquisition of Krauthammer is a major step forward for Lepaya – making Lepaya the leading capability platform that boosts productivity and retention of workforces of world’s largest organisations.”
“In just our 5th year of existence, we will touch the lives of more than 250,000 employees, while aiming to eventually help the full global workforce of 3.3B.”
About Krauthammer
Krauthammer aims to bring out the best in people, having trained managers, sales teams, and leaders all around the world for over 50 years.
Over 120 trainers provide hands-on, action-based instruction in over 20 languages, utilising a 6-step process to produce long-term outcomes.
Frans van Kreuningen, CEO of Krauthammer, says, “I’m really excited for Krauthammer and Lepaya to join forces. By combining Krauthammer’s long-standing training quality, with delivery at scale across Lepaya’s platform plus AI and VR-powered learning technology, we will be able to upskill and transform companies at every level of the organisation.”
Aim of this acquisition
According to Lepaya, a scalable and meaningful strategy to upskill is more necessary than ever as businesses struggle to accomplish more with fewer resources in a challenging economic environment.
Since more people want to see the practical effects of their learning, platforms that combine innovation, engagement, and impact are clearly in demand.
With the combination of Krauthammer’s deep learning expertise and Lepaya’s platform-driven strategy, the merged company will be the front-runner in offering clients the “most-advanced” capabilities platform, says Lepaya.
By acquiring Krauthammer, Lepaya says it has solidified its position as the leading upskilling and transformation firm catering to the needs of corporate entities and providing leadership training to their senior management.
With locations in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Munich, Stockholm, Paris, Zurich, Brussels, and Shanghai, the merged company will employ more than 400 people and provide services to over 1,000 clients worldwide, including ING, Dell, Maersk, Backbase, and Freudenberg.
Lepaya and its recent acquisitions
Founded in 2018 by René Janssen and Peter Kuperus, Lepaya is a provider of power skills training that combines online and offline learning.
The company believes that the right training at the right time and focusing on the right skill makes organisations more productive. It has built a mobile learning app that allows companies across all industries to tailor training as per employees’ and executives’ needs.
The platform combines soft and hard skill training modules into power skill development programmes, offering learning interventions and real-time data on learner behaviour and impact.
In the past, Lepaya has acquired AI tech companies like Munich-based VCoach (now Lepaya AI-Coach), Amsterdam-based Smartenup and the recent acquisition of London-based SpeakFirst.
Peter Kuperus, co-CEO of Lepaya, says, “We are unique in that our technology can prove that employees, after having gone through our programmes, truly apply the skills we teach on the job. No other European player can do this at scale.”
Lepaya is backed by Target Global, Mediahuis Ventures, and Tablomonto and has raised $47M to date.
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