Upskilling platform Degreed bags $32 million in funding to fast-track capabilities for upskilling, reskilling and redeploying workers at scale

According to Human Resource Executive, 75% to 80% of workers don’t complete their HR system’s talent profile, leaving organizations without a critical data set needed to inform agile business decisions. Enter Degreed, a Pleasanton, California-based tech startup and a provider of upskilling platform that helps companies overcome this gap by enabling employees to develop their skills and create skill profiles. Using that data, the platform can then promote career mobility by connecting users to project, gig, and job opportunities.

Today, Degreed announced it has raised $32 million in new funding in direct response to overwhelming demand for better skill insights, talent mobility, and a user-focused learning experience. Owl Ventures led this latest round, bringing Degreed’s total funding to $182 million.

Founded in 2012, Degreed is the workforce upskilling platform for one in three Fortune 50 companies. The startup integrates and curates all the resources people use to learn — including learning management systems and millions of courses, videos, articles, books, and podcasts. It then uses behavioral and data science to analyze everyone’s skills, and to automatically personalize career development based on their jobs, strengths, and goals.

“We’ve seen a tremendous surge in client demand for our career mobility product. It’s more important than ever for companies to understand the skills of their workforce, enrich their upskilling programs, and enable internal mobility,” said Chris McCarthy, CEO of Degreed. “Employees don’t care about a system of record that they see 1-2 times per year. They need a simple, personalized experience that helps them build their skills and advance their careers.”

“Transformation is the new normal. In order for us to keep up with the changes, learning agility is key to the organization — especially because upskilling is anticipated to save organizations $1.2 billion over the next 3 years,” said Raquel Andrade, Global Head of Talent Acquisition & Learning at Itaú Unibanco, a Degreed client and the largest financial institution in Latin America, and the 16th largest bank in the world. “Only skill data can reveal to us the business areas where we need to evolve, and drive transformation from inside out at Itaú.”

Funding comes after record demand for Degreed in the last 6 months. More than one-in-seven Degreed users activated their accounts between April and May this year alone. New clients — including Ford, Fidelity Investments, and South Africa’s Standard Bank — quickly shifted their workforce strategies to empower remote work and talent mobility.

“The workforce has fundamentally shifted over the past months, and organizations are investing further in their people and skills,” said Ian Chiu, Managing Director of Owl Ventures. “The need for lifelong learning is greater than ever and with this latest funding round, Degreed is well-positioned to shape a future where a person’s skills are the measure of their success and not their job titles. Where nobody becomes irrelevant because of a lack of the right skills at the right time.”