OBRIZUM’s $11.5m funding set to boost upskilling platform
OBRIZUM, the business-to-business digital learning technology company based at Dukes Court on Newmarket Road in Cambridge, has announced $11.5million in series A funding.
The round, which takes OBRIZUM’s total funding to $17m, was led by Guinness Ventures with contributions from existing investors Beaubridge, Juno Capital Partners and Qatar Science & Tech Holdings, and new investor Celeres Ventures.
Founded in 2015 by Chibeza Agley, Sarra Achouri and Juergen Fink, a trio of PhD-trained Cambridge scientists, OBRIZUM’s multi-patented and award-winning cloud platform automates the build, curation and analysis of adaptive digital learning programmes for large organisations.
The outcome is the ability to rapidly upskill and reskill staff through adaptive learning – saving businesses time, money and future-proofing their workforce.
OBRIZUM co-founder and CEO Chibeza Agley said: “Given that human capital costs are almost always one of the highest outgoing expenses in any business, not having a highly trained workforce who have easy access to the information they need to upskill fast is costing enterprises hundreds of millions of dollars every year and limiting their growth potential.
“We founded OBRIZUM because we knew existing systems of learning and training would not withstand the ever-expanding and rapidly changing global body of knowledge. We have since been proven right in our predictions that automation would be crucial, time would be at a premium, personalisation would be a requirement rather than a luxury, and data would be the most precious of all commodities.”
The corporate training market is expected to grow to $475bn by 2027 as companies across all sectors recognise the continual need to keep their workforce up-to-date, relevant and productive. However, they are currently unable to create learning programmes quickly enough to match their skills development needs.
With remote working booming post-Covid, the digital slice of the corporate learning market has upsized from 14 per cent to 33 per cent and climbing.
Trusted by customers in the corporate, government, aerospace, and defence sectors, OBRIZUM’s AI automatically analyses and curates multimedia content into modules, dramatically reducing manual effort for human operators. In addition to automating the build or updating of a learning programme, OBRIZUM individualises user journeys through content and assessments on-the-fly, enabling ultra-efficient knowledge and skill transfer. Each learner is taken through a tailored journey that is best suited to them, saving significant amounts of time and proving to be far more effective at upskilling in the process.
Shane Gallwey, head of Guinness Ventures, said: “Obrizum’s adaptive learning technology not only cuts training times for large enterprises but ensures better learning outcomes.
“At Guinness we recognise the Obrizum management team as insightful and driven, and with a strong commercial appreciation of what is required to build a world-class business in the education technology field. We are delighted to support them on this journey.”
Matthew Moss, fellow and director of external relations at Homerton College, said: “This is a fantastic achievement by Chibeza and his colleagues.
“As a fellow of Homerton, he has brought OBRIZUM into the college’s ecosystem, to the benefit of both – helping our students learn about entrepreneurial mindsets and motivation, as well as bringing board members and partners into the college.
“Together we connect the virtual world and the intensive in-person education of a Cambridge College, and we are proud to support OBRIZUM’s success.”
