PALO ALTO — Workera, an operator of a skills intelligence platform, has closed a $23.5 million Series B financing led by Jump Capital with participation from existing investors NEA, Owl Ventures, AI Fund, and new investor Sozo Ventures.
Workera enables companies to better understand and develop their talent. By providing a deep understanding of an organization’s skills, Workera’s skills intelligence platform empowers leaders to make better, more informed talent development decisions. Utilizing computational psychometrics and deep learning, Workera delivers best-in-class computer adaptive assessments with hyper-personalized learning plans to companies across all industries. Global organizations, including Samsung, Siemens Energy, and the US Air Force, use the platform to intelligently invest in and support their talent.
“Technology is advancing faster than ever. New tools, like ChatGPT, shake up industries every year. But skills aren’t keeping up. Companies capable of upskilling talent at market speed will reinvent themselves and build the future. Others will risk being disrupted,” said Kian Katanforoosh, CEO of Workera. “Companies often overlook a key component of increasing the speed at which they develop skills: understanding the depth of skill sets within their talent pool. Machine learning isn’t one skill; it’s actually tested as 102 distinct skills today on Workera.”
Belcorp, a multinational beauty company going through a digital transformation, has accelerated skills development by an estimated 30% for their data engineers and 57% for their software engineers in 9 months. Venkat Gopalan, Chief Technology, Data & Digital Officer of Belcorp, notes that Workera played a key role in accelerating their ability to innovate by improving project quality and boosting their team’s confidence in delivering critical projects.
“The first step in workforce transformation is grasping what skills you have. Unlike most inference-based solutions derived from degrees or work experiences, Workera provides a high-fidelity signal and a powerful engine to target and accelerate learning and steer talent acquisition. We believe Workera will be the breakout winner in this emerging space, and we are truly excited to partner with Kian and his dynamic team,” commented Mike McMahon, co-founder and managing partner of Jump Capital.
With this latest capital infusion, Workera will increase its comprehensive ontology of over 7,000 skills to include soft skills assessments, such as leadership and management. Already, Workera is rolling out a major update to its customers, which allows businesses to create skills-based career pathways in a few clicks, helping their employees upskill faster than ever. The pathways are adaptive and goal-oriented, providing learners with a highly personalized and motivating experience. Lastly, a richer skill assessment experience with more frequent check-ins will provide leaders with even better ongoing measurement of their workforce’s skills.
“Using deep learning and language models, Workera’s technology makes getting accurate and granular data on people’s skills an efficient process. Assessments help you learn what are your strengths and weaknesses, thereby providing deep skills intelligence that leads to actionable insights for both individuals and organizations,” said Andrew Ng, chairman of the board for Workera.
