The increase in remote workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic means that more users than ever are on the GO1 platform for remote learning.
GO1.com, a content hub designed to help companies upscale their workforce with on-demand training, has announced it has raised over US$40 million in a Series C funding and has said it has tripled usage on its platform in a new era of remote work.
The funding round was led by SEEK and Madrona Venture Group with participation from new investor, Salesforce Ventures and existing investors, M12 (Microsoft’s venture fund and Our Innovation Fund).
“GO1’s growth over the last couple of months has been unprecedented and the use of online tools for training is now undergoing a structural shift,” said Andrew Barnes, CEO of GO1.
“It is gratifying to fill an important void right now as workers embrace online solutions. We are inspired about the future that we are building as we expand our platform with new mediums that reach millions of people every day with the content they need.”
GO1 has doubled the number of organisations using the platform in Australia over the past year. As remote learning has become a necessity for many, GO1 has tripled engagement on the platform over the last month.
The latest funding will be used to increase market expansion in North America as well as expand its content provider partner network in direct response to the increased demand for the platform.
The funding comes on the heels of an integration with Microsoft Teams, which enables organisations using Teams to learn directly within their workplace ecosystem. Individuals can now find, consume, share, and discuss learning resources from GO1’s extensive library of online learning resources.
“GO1 has been critical for business continuity as organisations navigate the remote realities of COVID-19,” said Nagraj Kashyap, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Global Head of M12.
“The GO1 integration with Microsoft Teams offers a seamless learning experience at a time when 75 million people are using the application daily. We’re proud to invest in a solution helping keep employees learning and businesses growing through this time.”
“We met GO1 many months before COVID-19 was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and were impressed then with the growth of the platform and the ability of the team to expand their corporate training offering significantly in North America and Europe,” commented S. Somasegar, managing director, Madrona Venture Group.
“The global pandemic has only increased the need to both provide training and retraining – and also to do it remotely. GO1 is an important link in the chain of recovery.” As part of the funding Somasegar will join the GO1 board of directors.
Rob Keith, Head of Australia, Salesforce Ventures, said that the future will be digital learning. He said, “We are excited about partnering with GO1 as it looks to scale its online training platform globally. While the majority of corporate learning is done in person today, we believe the new digital imperative will see an acceleration in the shift to online learning tools. We believe GO1 fits well into the Trailhead ecosystem and our vision of creating the life-long learner journey.”
In an effort to support employees during this time, GO1 has made all COVID-19 related learning resources available for free to help teams continue to perform and feel supported during this time of disruption and change.
GO1 has raised over US$80 million in total funding from investors including M12 – Microsoft’s venture fund, SEEK, Madrona Venture Group, Salesforce Ventures, Shark Tank investor Steve Baxter and Oxford University.
