GO1.com raises over $40 million Series C funding as usage of its online training tripled in a new era of remote work

Coronavirus pandemic has changed the future of work good. As more companies are encouraging their employees to work from home, remote workers are also beginning to warm up to remote learning. One of the beneficiaries of this shift is GO1, a Brisbane, Australia-based software startup that develops cloud based software to train staff and customers. GO1 said said it has tripled usage on its platform as more remote workers are using its platform for remote learning to embrace training.

Today, GO1 announced it has raised $40 million in a Series C funding. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group and SEEK with participation from new investor, Salesforce Ventures and existing investors, M12 – Microsoft’s venture fund and Our Innovation Fund. To date, GO1.com has raised over US$80 million in total funding from investors including M12 – Microsoft’s venture fund, Madrona Venture Group, SEEK, Salesforce Ventures, Shark Tank investor Steve Baxter and Oxford University.

The funding comes on the heels of an integration with Microsoft Teams, which enables organizations using Teams to learn directly within their workplace ecosystem. Individuals can now find, consume, share, and discuss learning resources from GO1’s extensive library of online learning resources.

Founded in 2015 by Andrew Barnes, Chris Eigeland, Chris Hood, and Vu Tran, GO1 provides a content hub that allows companies to upscale their workforce with on-demand training, a dynamic content-driven platform for companies that are Open to Learn. GO1 pulls the world’s top online learning providers into one place, delivering all the learning an organization needs in a single solution. With over 1.5 million learners – and growing – GO1 is a world leader in online learning.

“GO1’s growth over the last couple of months has been unprecedented and the use of online tools for training is now undergoing a structural shift,” said Andrew Barnes, CEO of GO1. “It is gratifying to fill an important void right now as workers embrace online solutions. We are inspired about the future that we are building as we expand our platform with new mediums that reach millions of people every day with the content they need.”

GO1 has grown 5x year-over-year in the U.S. market, bringing the number of organizations using the platform to over 3,000 globally. As remote learning has become a necessity for many, GO1 has tripled engagement on the platform over the last month. The funding will be used to increase market expansion in North America as well as expand its content provider partner network in direct response to the increased demand for the platform.

The funding comes on the heels of an integration with Microsoft Teams, which enables organizations using Teams to learn directly within their workplace ecosystem. Individuals can now find, consume, share, and discuss learning resources from GO1’s extensive library of online learning resources.

“GO1 has been critical for business continuity as organizations navigate the remote realities of COVID-19,” said Nagraj Kashyap, Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Global Head of M12. “The GO1 integration with Microsoft Teams offers a seamless learning experience at a time when 75 million people are using the application daily. We’re proud to invest in a solution helping keep employees learning and businesses growing through this time.”

“We met GO1 many months before COVID-19 was on the tip of everyone’s tongue and were impressed then with the growth of the platform and the ability of the team to expand their corporate training offering significantly in North America and Europe,” commented S. Somasegar, managing director, Madrona Venture Group. “The global pandemic has only increased the need to both provide training and retraining – and also to do it remotely. GO1 is an important link in the chain of recovery.” As part of the funding Somasegar will join the GO1 board of directors.

GO1 serves as the hub of the learning ecosystem, connecting to learning management systems and content providers to enable organizations to deliver their own learning content, or popular third-party content, in the systems they use every day. Instead of being locked into one provider, GO1’s platform can integrate into existing systems and provide an endless learning library from all the best providers to ensure that they are getting the right resources for the training they need.

“We are excited about partnering with GO1 as it looks to scale its online content hub globally. While the majority of corporate learning is done in person today, we believe the new digital imperative will see an acceleration in the shift to online learning tools. We believe GO1 fits well into the Trailhead ecosystem and our vision of creating the life-long learner journey,” said Rob Keith, Head of Australia, Salesforce Ventures.

“GO1 are leaders in helping employees to connect with up-skilling and re-skilling opportunities across a broad range of industries. We are pleased to support their growth as they continue to move into new markets and offer even more courses to workers” says Ronnie Fink, SEEK Managing Director Corporate Development.