Springboard, a San Francisco, CA-based mentor-guided online learning platform that prepares people for in-demand careers, raised $31m in Series B funding.
The round, which brought total capital raised to more than $50m, was led by new investor Telstra Ventures, with participation from Vulcan Capital and SJF Ventures, and returning investors Costanoa Ventures, Pearson Ventures, Reach Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), 500 Startups, Blue Fog Capital, and Learn Capital.
Co-founded by Gautam Tambay and Parul Gupta in 2013, Springboard offers a learning model that has enabled thousands of career transitions into the most in-demand technology fields via its job-guaranteed programs that are taught entirely online. Its remote-first yet human-centric approach matches each student 1:1 with a personalized mentor—an industry professional working in their chosen field—who provides weekly feedback to keep students motivated and accountable.
The company intends to use the funds to build several innovative tools including
– The Hireability Forecaster, which provides early indications of student success and potential employability roadblocks by combining the Springboard’s predictive technology and the insights from its global community of almost 1,000 industry mentors;
– Springboard Introductions, which offers students personalized, targeted introductions and job referrals from its community of over 13,000 mentors, alumni, fellow students, and employer partners;
– Student-Job Fit Recommender, an AI-driven job matching tool, which recommends open roles at Springboard’s employer partners that match each student’s background and skill set.
In the coming months, Springboard plans to grow its course offerings outside the high-tech industry to include additional skills gap disciplines and to deepen its partnerships with universities and employers.
FinSMEs
05/08/2020