Why we invested into Lepaya
By Bao-Y Van Cong and Dominic Aits
As humans, we are constantly learning from the moment we are born. Throughout early life, our learning is heavily structured (i.e. kindergarten, K12, further education) with traditional education very much focused on hard skills (& often outdated ones!). The reality is however, that out in the wider world, a large part of our professional success stems from our ability to master soft skills. That is, skills most commonly associated with emotional intelligence — touching upon topics such as leadership, management, resilience etc — often hard to measure, and harder to teach.
Unlike hard skills — which we are taught in a structured manner — we are often missing the same training for these crucial soft skills. And most critically (for those who’ve experienced corporate training), soft skills training is often highly theoretical with a lack of practical application.
There is a greater awareness to teach employees excel skills, compliance skills or even language skills, but what about the soft skills that make up a big part of our future success?
Lepaya is solving exactly this problem: as a corporate learning platform Lepaya enables the practical upskilling of employees on soft skills that are relevant for their jobs. The company provides training with a hybrid learning model combining bite-sized online content with group sessions led by experienced trainers. Lepaya’s curriculum centres around the idea of developing ‘powerskills’ (i.e. resilience) across 60 modules (“hiring for success, presenting with confidence, or fostering diversity and inclusion”), with the focus on practical application so the skill is deeply embedded.
Today, Lepaya is working with >100 customers globally including Microsoft, L’oreal, KPMG as well as Takeaway.com and Hellofresh. With a sign-up rate of 94% Lepaya’s offering is highly valued and sought after by employees. Unlike many online-only content libraries that achieve completion rates of 10%, Lepaya achieves best-in-class completion rates of 81%. With many customers, implementing Lepaya and offering employees the opportunity to upskill and constantly learn has led to an increase in employee retention of 2x for some customers and measurably higher employee satisfaction.
And why does this matter to employers?
Retention is the new tool in the fight for talent, and it’s one that’s being waged digitally
We are in the midst of what has been termed the Great Resignation, a trend describing the increasing number of workers resigning from their jobs in the pursuit of better career opportunities or pay elsewhere. Forward-thinking employers have recognised that employees are a significant stakeholder in their success and that helping them learn and upskill is a key part of this. Lepaya helps companies and their managers address this problem at an organisational scale.
When we first met Rene and Peter, the two founders of Lepaya, we were hugely impressed by their vision for lifelong learning and their approach to making soft skill learning tangible, accessible, engaging and fun. In only 3 years, two of which were in lockdown, they have managed to train over 20+k employees from over 40 countries in what we see as a monumental success so far.
Our investment in Lepaya marks our second in the Netherlands this year, and also our second investment into edtech. We are proud to be working with Lepaya together with Mediahuis and Tablomonto Ventures alongside many great entrepreneurs, influential edtech & HR tech leaders including Noor van Boven (ex-CHRO N26) and Anna Brandt (ex-Mollie, ex-Uber).
