Fortino Capital to lead €3m Seed round in EdTech start-up Peers, which aims at closing the employee skill gap in Europe
Fortino Capital to lead €3m Seed round in EdTech start-up Peers, which aims at closing the employee skill gap in Europe
Amsterdam / Berlin, 23.11.2021 - To accelerate its growth trajectory, Peers has completed an oversubscribed €3 million Seed round. The Seed round is led by Benelux-based, B2B software investor Fortino Capital, alongside Berlin-based, female founder investor Auxxo, and Seed + Speed Ventures (part of the Maschmeyer Group). TRUMPF Ventures and various Business Angels are also joining the round.
According to the World Economic Forum, 50 percent of employees will need new or different skills in the next four years. Meanwhile, corporate learning and development is often cumbersome, not tailored to employees' needs, and ultimately ineffective. Berlin-based Peers Solutions has developed a solution that creates individual learning programmes for any employee within five minutes. Peers's ambition is to develop the smartest and fastest learning path generator that can service the majority of the workforce of medium sized and large businesses across Europe.
"Today, continuous learning is a crucial factor for business success. Peers is very well positioned to support companies in bridging their employees' skill gaps with a solution that defines individualised learning and development trajectories across professions and industries, and which has proven to be highly effective and strongly appreciated by its users." Wouter Goossens, Investment Director at Fortino Capital Partners
Individualized training at the push of a button
At the core of the start-up is its AI-powered learning path generator SELENA. SELENA creates individualised learning and development programmes for thousands of users in a matter of minutes. To do this, SELENA identifies the users' learning needs and finds suitable learning offerings that are already on the market, paired with content from the respective company.
At the same time, employees record their actual and target skills in line with their job profile. The data for these target skills is based on ESCO, a database of the European Commission with over 12,000 skills. The learning units include theoretical, practical, digital, and face-to-face content, and are delivered by partners such as the Haufe Akademie, Pink University, TÜV Rheinland, and others. Managers, HR staff, and learners can track their success directly on the Peers learning platform.
"Developing individual learning programs manually costs us months. Peers is the extended arm of personnel development, which we use to train our employees faster and in a more targeted manner." Kerstin Kägler, Head of Corporate HR Learning & Development TRUMPF GmbH + Co. KG
Founder and CEO Elisa Hertzler and co-founder Dr. David Topf spun Peers off from within TRUMPF, the high-tech company that is also invested through TRUMPF Venture. Peers is therefore firmly anchored in industrial and medium-sized businesses. By now, the solution is also used by large companies in real estate, the services industry, and other industries - with great success.
"We want to enable everyone to reach their full potential, regardless of their background, age or the company they work for. Individualised and transparent training is crucial for this." Elisa Hertzler, Founder CEO Peers Solutions GmbH
About Peers Solutions
Peers is a globally unique learning platform for individualized training at your fingertips. Based on artificial intelligence, the start-up identifies learning needs and finds suitable learning offers from the market, supplemented by their customers' own content. The start-up was founded in 2019 by Elisa Hertzler and Dr. David Topf.
About Fortino Capital Partners
Fortino Capital Partners is a European investment firm that invests in high-growth B2B software solutions, including SaaS, PaaS, and digital technology companies. Fortino contributes by leveraging its extensive operational and strategic expertise, particularly in the areas of product/market fit and software development.
