Workforce upskilling startup Springboard raises $31 Mn in Series B round

Springboard, an online learning platform for workforce upskilling, has scored $31 million in a Series B funding round led by Telstra Ventures. 

While the latest round was joined by new investors including Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures, over half a dozen existing investors including Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation or IFC, 500 Startups, Blue Frog Capital, and Learn Capital also infused capital in the fresh financing.

This is the second investment round for Springboard after $11 million post series A round in December 2019. With this, the platform has raised about $50 million in total capital across three institutional rounds. 

Based out of San Francisco along with having offices in Bengaluru, the company is planning to utilize the fresh proceeds towards deepening its partnerships with universities and employers and enable them to adapt to evolving reskilling needs in a post-pandemic economy.

Launched in 2013 by Parul Gupta and Gautam Tambay as SlideRule, the company was rechristened as Springboard in 2015. It provides an online boot camp for high-demand digital skill programs including machine learning, data science, software engineering, and UI/UX design. It claims to have 20,000 students across over 100 countries who are using the platform to enhance their skills. 

The platform counts big companies such as Samsung, Salesforce, Visa, LinkedIn, Cisco among its major clients. “With this funding, we are in a good position to build on our strengths to provide in-demand job skills and holistic support at every step,” said Vivek Kumar, managing director of Springboard in an email statement. 

Over the past year, numerous upskilling platforms for working professionals and freshers have been gaining ground but the segment is still in its nascent stage. Although the concept has been popular in the US and the west, a clutch of companies in India such as Interviewbit Academy, Masai School have been evangelizing different models in the segment.