With the coronavirus pandemic, there are a limited set of activities one can do from home. However, the field of learning and education has received a boost since people and corporates are now tuning in remotely to learn new skills. With internet access and multiple options online, it is easier than ever to study online.
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To make this task easier, Amsterdam-based startup Growth Tribe offers specialised training in multiple digital domains. They aim to bridge the gap in digital skills and are committed to offering hands-on and practical training to professionals and students at a faster time.
Bootstrapped Growth Tribe raises €3 million
Taking its commitment to the next level, the company has now announced raising €3 million in its first funding round. The investment was led by Rinkelberg Capital Ltd, a London-based investment office closely associated with the co-founders behind TomTom, who also invested in Spotify, Takeaway.com, and Ace & Tate.
With the fresh funds, Growth Tribe will continue to develop its training portfolio and learning experience platform. This forms the basis for further international expansion. The company is now ready to expand its learning suite reskilling and upskilling the workforces of large enterprises via internal academies.
Speaking exclusively to Silicon Canals – Peter van Sabben, co-founder and CEO, Growth Tribe says, “The latest funding will help develop and accelerate our learning platform. Additionally, the money will be used to accelerate our online growth across Europe. In 2020, our main focus would be to help people that are switching jobs and we will be also continuing our efforts to strengthen partnerships with bigger corporations. This would result in delivering more courses, and in different domains.”
Growth Tribe was founded five years ago, in April 2015, in Amsterdam by Peter van Sabben, David Arnoux, and Quentin Lacointa. The startup enables individuals, teams, and organisations to update their digital skills in various domains. The training area includes growth marketing, data science, UX design, data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence.
“After five years of bootstrapping, it is time to accelerate Growth Tribe’s next phase of growth, further expanding our training portfolio, digitising our courses to reach new markets, and developing our learning experience platform. We see unique opportunities in the current market because the Corona crisis is speeding up the need for upskilling, reskilling, and remote learning. With Rinkelberg Capital, we have a great financial partner who believes in our vision – to inspire people and organisations to always be learning so they can adapt, stay up to date, and succeed in a fast-changing world,” adds Sabben.
Regarding this next step in Growth Tribe’s development, Marc Slendebroek, CEO, Rinkelberg Capital explains, “Our firm is excited to support Growth Tribe in its next phase of corporate growth. There is a strong demand for well-educated professionals with strong capabilities in the digital space, enabling Growth Tribe’s clients to deal with digital transformation with confidence and optimism.”
With campuses in the UK, France, Denmark, Finland and Norway, Growth Tribe has trained over 15,000 people and 900 companies including Philips, Ahold, Thuisbezorgd, Rabobank, and more.
How Growth Tribe anticipated COVID-19 pandemic?
It’s not surprising that with people staying indoors, the coronavirus pandemic has impacted businesses. Growth Tribe revealed to Silicon Canals that they anticipated the corona crisis in Europe at the beginning of March already and started working with remote training by opening four remote studios in two weeks’ time.
“Before corona, we did offline training in classrooms. But we also already did some online training, as that was also one direction where we wanted to explore. During the coronavirus outbreak, around the beginning of March, when we saw what was happening in China, we started anticipating what will happen when the virus hits Europe. Flights would be grounded and it was worrying since we are operating in seven countries with over 100 employees. So, we anticipated this and created four studios on our own Amsterdam campus, which is capable of offering online and remote courses. In just two weeks time, we managed to get all our offline courses, along with all formats and videos, converted into online training. These online training sessions are still interactive, super engaging and extremely practical with courses and coaching. This has been an amazing achievement from the team.” says Sabben.
Growth Tribe trains individuals and also offers corporate programs. With plenty of online courses to select from, one can select different formats for learning. For example, one can go for a two-day course or follow the six-week evening course. Additionally, there are 12 weeks to six-month programs too. In the current coronavirus scenario, the startup says its business is being driven by both corporates and individuals.
Adding more to the point, Sabben says, “We cater to both groups. There are individuals who want to switch jobs or maybe acquire new skills as they lost their jobs to the pandemic. The latter want to know what to do next? or how to be more attractive in the job market? They want to invest in themselves and learn new skills. Then, there are big corporates, which require training for hundreds of employees. One of our clients requires training for their employees. They support online grocery delivery and because of the lockdown, their business is growing rapidly. Additionally, Philips is one of our clients that is receiving numerous medical requests for online medical products. Therefore, their employees need more Data Analytics for business training.”
Solving problems with a unique approach
“High-level technology accelerates quickly and grows faster than people can learn. One has questions such as; How does this digital world work? What is AI? What is data science? What is machine learning? How can I talk with a data scientist as a manager, for example, or as a startup founder? Or if I hire a data scientist, where should I look and what is this new field? These are some of the problems we try to solve with our courses.” says Sabben. There is a growing digital skill gap in the market and Growth Tribe offers its courses to fulfil that gap.
The company also has a unique approach for its solutions. The courses provided by the startup break down complex digital concepts and methodologies. It empowers users to navigate themselves in the digital world with the help of its highly engaging classes. Sabben adds, “We make learning engaging, fast, fun, and actually actionable. That’s our signature learning style. We inspire people to learn and help them be updated to succeed in the digital world. And this is also what differentiates us from the competitors.”
Image Credits: Growth Tribe
With inputs from Akansha Srivastava
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