Accenture, Workday Invest in Strivr

<p><strong>SANTA CLARA<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; Strivr&comma; a platform for enterprise-scale Virtual Reality &lpar;VR&rpar; solutions&comma; announced that Accenture and Workday Ventures have made strategic investments as part of the company’s latest funding round&period; As an extension to its Series B round&comma; this &dollar;35 million round is being led by Georgian&comma; with participation of additional new investors including Bank of America and Gaingels&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The investments will help advance Strivr’s position as the platform of choice for elevating workforce performance through VR&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Strivr also announced it is now part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight&comma; an engagement and investment program focused on investing in companies that create or apply disruptive enterprise technologies&period; Additionally&comma; Strivr has joined the Workday Software Partner Program&comma; and intends to integrate its immersive learning platform with Workday Content Cloud&comma; which will help serve the needs of enterprises facing challenges in training&comma; upskilling&comma; and reskilling their workforces&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With major shifts over the past two years including remote work&comma; the Great Resignation&comma; and the potential of the Metaverse for virtual collaboration&comma; working norms and employee expectations are being redefined&period; Organizations are challenged with recruiting&comma; supporting&comma; and retaining workers&comma; making investments in more engaging and impactful skills development programs an essential initiative across every industry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;New approaches to workforce development are engaging employees in more dynamic ways and providing them with critical skills development opportunities they need to advance&comma;” said Tom Lounibos&comma; managing director of Accenture Ventures&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We are now at an inflection point&comma; where immersive technologies are taking center stage in driving the future of work&period; With this strategic investment in Strivr&comma; we are helping to fuel this future to enable enterprises to build more engaged&comma; connected&comma; and higher performing workforces&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Immersive experiences are already influencing how enterprises are engaging and skilling their workforces&period; VR has become an effective way to train distributed and remote employees by replicating real-world workplace scenarios in a safe and controlled virtual environment&period; Metrics like learner engagement and retention from VR training can augment traditional virtual learning methods and easily go head-to-head with instructor-led in-person training&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;To address the tight labor market&comma; we believe that a skills-based people strategy is essential for both employees and employers today and in the future&comma;” said Mark Peek&comma; managing director and head of Workday Ventures&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Together&comma; Workday and Strivr will be able to help customers reskill their workforces through advanced VR solutions that will give employees the training they need to stay engaged at their organization&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With over 1 million workers trained in VR&comma; Strivr has partnered with companies including Bank of America&comma; MGM Resorts&comma; Sprouts&comma; Verizon&comma; and Walmart to teach employees new skills faster and more efficiently&comma; and deliver deeper data-driven insights to further drive talent development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As enterprises increasingly take on a more connected&comma; people-first strategy&comma; building skills and engaging employees are the two most critical tools HR and L&&num;038&semi;D leaders have in their tool belt&comma;” said Derek Belch&comma; founder and CEO of Strivr&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With strategic investments from industry leaders like Accenture and Workday Ventures&comma; we will continue to advance our vision of elevating employee performance through immersive experience&comma; and delivering the enterprise-scale platform to connect the immersive worlds of tomorrow&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;