It can be hard to find the right platform for learning, especially when companies are looking to upskill or reskill their employees to meet demand.
Workera.ais's approach is to customize learning plans with targeted resources, both technical and not-technical, based on a person's current proficiency level. This helps close the skills gap.
The Palo Alto-based firm secured $16 Million in Series A funding. This was led by New Enterprise Associates and included existing investors Owl Ventures, AI Fund as well as individual investors such as Richard Socher and Pieter Abbeel.
Kian Katanforoosh is the co-founder of Workeras and the CEO. He says that not all teams are structured or feel supported in their learning journey. Workera approaches the problem from multiple angles. The company conducts an assessment to determine technical skills and where employees want to go in the future. Workera then connects those dots to get them from where they are in their skill set to where they want. The company's library contains more than 3,000 micro-skills as well as personalized learning plans.
He explained to TechCrunch that this is what we call precision-upskilling. This data can then be used to identify the best people to work together and who have complementary skills.
After working with Andrew Ng (Co-founder of Coursera and chairman of Workeras), Katanforoosh, and James Lee, the COO, Workera was established in 2020. Lee knew that the company could solve the content and fundamentals of education problems when he first met Katanforoosh.
The company raised a seed round of $5 million last October, bringing its total raised to $21 million. After acquiring over 30 customers across 12 countries, the company's go-to market strategy and customer traction drove this latest round.
Lee stated that the company has been working with Fortune 500 companies such as Siemens Energy over the past quarters in industries such as professional services and medical devices, as well energy. He said that Workera will help close the gap as AI skills spending is projected to surpass $79 billion by 2022.
He said that we are now seeing the need to measure our skills. Engagements of this size are an indication that there is interest from both tech and non-tech teams in developing AI literacy. This is a pressing need.
Katanforoosh stated that it was now time to expand the engineering and science departments. Katanforoosh plans to use the funding to expand his talent base and create new products. He also believes that there are many natural language processes behind the scenes and that the company should be better able to understand them at a fine level in order to assess individuals more accurately.
Carmen Chang, general partner and Head of Asia at NEA said that she is a limited shareholder in Ngs AI Fund and Coursera and has looked at a lot his companies.
She stated that she was very excited to be leading the Workeras round. Chang said that the company has a solid understanding of employee skills and will be able adapt the tailored learning program to meet company needs.
Chang stated that while you can hire anyone, investing in your people, and educating and training them will allow you to see the whole of your workforce. Workera can test AI and machine learning in a company and map out their skill sets. This is especially valuable in this type of environment.
