Paris-based Simbel exits beta mode after raising €4M from Speedinvest, others

Paris-based Simbel, a SaaS-enabled marketplace for learning and development (L&D), announced on Thursday that it has secured €4M in a Seed round of funding led by Speedinvest and Brighteye. 

Participating angels include Thibaud Elziere (eFounders co-founder), Virgile Ringeart (Figures co-founder), Nicolas Steegmann (Stupeflix co-founder), and Alexandre Eruimy (Prestashop co-founder).

Simbel will use the funds to accelerate its product development. 

“Our ambition is to build the easiest solution for organisations to promote the right learning content at the right time, based on our marketplace data and the organisation’s HR data,” says Jourdain.

Simbel: What you need to know

Loïc Jourdain and Charles Gras founded Simbel in 2021 to provide a SaaS-enabled marketplace for learning and development (L&D) to keep staff’s knowledge and skills relevant to their employer’s needs.

The French company integrates with SMBs’ existing HR stack and uses periodic performance reviews for identifying individual learning and development needs. 

“HR teams are supposed to inspire teams, create learning rituals, organize internal and external learning sessions, and oversee learning and development. But the reality is that SMBs typically only have one or two people to manage all these activities and still run their L&D on Excel sheets,” says Simbel CEO and co-founder Loïc Jourdain.

Consequently, SMBs benefit from the training, helping HR teams streamline all their L&D operations and measure the impact of the training.

Simbel says businesses can combine their materials with more than 500 content and courses from top training providers.

Simbel, which developed its offering in collaboration with its first clients, including Blablacar and Roland Berger, is now officially out of beta mode and available to SMBs in Europe. 

Investors

Speedinvest is an early-stage venture capital firm with more than €600M AuM and 40 investors based in Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, and Vienna. To date, the VC has invested in 250+ companies, including Wefox, Bitpanda, TIER Mobility, GoStudent, Wayflyer, CoachHub, among others. 

Jeroen Arts, Partner with the Marketplaces & Consumer team at Speedinvest, says, “To stay competitive in today’s rapidly changing working environment, companies must ensure their employees have the up-to-date skills needed to perform their jobs well. It’s a massive task for any size organization and even more difficult for resource-strapped SMBs. Simbel’s commitment to these historically underserved businesses makes it possible for some 200,000 SMBs in Europe alone to offer employees world-class learning & development at scale.” 

Brighteye Ventures is a European Edtech venture capital fund that invests in startups at the intersection of learning, entertainment, and creativity to empower and expand the frontiers of human potential. 

David Guérin, Principal at Brighteye, says, “We were immediately convinced by Loïc and Charles, who is methodical, determined, and deeply knowledgeable founders. They have unique insights into the untapped L&D space for SMBs and have built a product that delivers the fastest, cheapest, and easiest way for employees to access curated and best-in-class training providers. Their vision resonated with us, and we believe that Simbel can become the L&D standard for SMBs.”