Spotlight — Learnerbly raises £1.6m to grow professional development platform
We know that millennials are reshaping the workplace, with the average number of positions held in a lifetime rising to six. This means huge competition to find, attract and retain this talented and dynamic generation — something we know our tech scale-up members face.
Research has found that there is a significant gap between what millennials want and expect from their employer and their experience of the workplace.
Rajeeb Dey MBE believes professional development is the solution, and saw a gap in the market for a platform to help SMEs to understand the personal and professional goals of their employees.
After founding successful internship and graduate job platform Enternships, Rajeeb launched Learnerbly, which this week announced £1.6m in a Seed round.
We met with the ambitious technology entrepreneur at Aldgate East Techspace for a chat about what this new investment will mean.
How did the company start?
I was running Enternships where we helped over 7K SMEs hire interns and graduates, and I began to turn my attention to how to help these employees grow. There was a real need for a platform to evaluate the impact of learning both for the employee and the business. The key reason why staff leave companies is because of the lack of professional development and when they feel that they’ve plateaued.
There isn’t really a place to go to discover the best professional learning opportunities, and there’s no quality control. Anyone can sell themselves as a coach or consultant. So that was the gap in the market. Our clients want to see find out the impact on the business, and understand the ROI of professional development.
What’s life as a solo-founder like?
I’ve known no different, as I’ve always been a solo entrepreneur, since I was 17. It’s hard because all the stresses are on your shoulders but having a really talented leadership team around you is really important. I’m fortunate to have a great senior leadership team which includes CTO, COO, CFO and Head of Product and Head of Business Development. These senior hires are so helpful, as you can share the burden with them, and they help to drive the business forward.
What’s happening at Learnerbly at the moment?
We’ve just made our announcement of our seed round. We’ve made some key hires lately, as well as rolling the platform out to some great clients including IDEO, carwow, and ustwo, and now it’s about working towards the next release of the platform in September. Our big focus for clients are fast growing tech companies and advertising and innovation industries.
We’ve got some new features around personal development plans, including linking learning and development activities to PDPs and wider company goals and objectives. When you request to buy a book, or book to go on a conference — it’s all linked to your personal development plan so you can track the outcomes and efficacy.
What are you doing on the build up to your new product release?
We’ve taken a lot of feedback from existing clients and we are speaking to future potential clients, so that we can identify gaps and opportunities. There is effectively a new tech stack going behind the scenes.
A lot of companies are currently tracking learning via Google forms or spreadsheets (if at all) and we want to improve this experience for all to enable managers to have more fruitful and productive conversations about the development needs of their team.
Can you tell us about your journey for finding investment?
I had never raised institutional money previously, but I’ve developed a very strong network over the years and know a lot of VCs. Investors typically say that when they invest they invest in a team first and foremost and a big vision — so they need to know you and feel comfortable with you in the first instance. Having a good network has certainly helped me get meetings, which is a massive hurdle and once you’re through the door you then have to convey your vision in a compelling manner and make sure they have the confidence that you and your team are the ones to deliver.
How is the market since Brexit was announced?
It’s going to be interesting as the war for talent intensifies — you won’t just be able to bring in people you want. You need to invest in talent, and give them skills they need to flourish. We expect as a macro trend that companies will invest more on their own employees as the external talent pool from which they can readily hire shrinks.
What’s in the roadmap?
We eventually want to become the destination platform for professional development. We’re creating a Development Management System, a new category in the industry, which focuses on outcomes and impact.
In the future there’s no reason why there wouldn’t be a proposition for an individual to access who wants to invest in their own careers.
What have been your biggest learnings?
Hiring is super hard — it takes time and so it’s very tempting to take short cuts. We were fortunate that one of our VC investors, Playfair Capital provided us an interim Head of Talent at the beginning of the year, for around 6 weeks. We picked up a lot of insights from him on how to structure an interview and run a recruitment process and he secured our Head of Product. Really invest that time in getting the process right. (Read our top talent tips on the Techspace blog.)
What’s your journey been like at Techspace?
We were sharing in Shoreditch Commercial Road with Charlie HR before we moved to Aldgate East, and one of the big things we like is the flexibility. The ability to grow and not move around offices too much is good. Techspace offers great facilities, and a brilliant location.
What advice would you give to yourself 10 years ago?
All the mistakes I’ve made have actually made me a stronger person. Know it’s a long journey ahead, but enjoy the ride!
I’ve also learnt the importance of valuing and building a network. I’ve always tried to pay it forward by being helpful — it pays back in ways you wouldn’t expect.
