Studytube, an Amsterdam-based customised learning platform for organisations, has acquired European training-booking marketplace, Springest.
Besides the acquisition, Studytube also announced that it has raised $30 million (approx €26.44M) in its Series B round of funding led by strategic investment firm Energy Impact Partners (EIP) and existing investor Verdane.
With the latest round of investment, the company plans to scale up staff and make more strategic acquisitions in Europe.
Co-founded by Homam Karimi, Gerhard Riphagen, Sebastiaan Menheere, and Stepan Suvorov in 2013, Studytube provides an all-in-one learning platform that helps organisations make employee learning and development easy as well as help employees unlock their full potential. Currently, the company offers learning products with courses from over 1,000 providers.
With 180 people working across offices in Amsterdam, Berlin, and Kharkiv (Ukraine), the company aims to expand the team to 300 people and the product team from 60 to 120 people.
Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder and CEO of Studytube, Homam Karimi, said, "Thanks to the Springest acquisition, our portfolio has instantly grown to over 8,000 learning providers that offer over 250,000 online and offline learning products. In 2021, a total of 50 million euros worth of learning products were procured through our marketplaces."
The company believes that it is of great importance for both people and organizations to be future-oriented. That's why it improves the learning platform every day. In this way the platform continues to inspire employees to work on their future themselves, to keep up with the times and to get the best out of themselves.
Springest, started in 2008 by Ruben Timmerman, is a comparison website for training programmes and courses. Learning and development (L&D) providers place their learning products on the platform to help users view, compare and find the ideal course, e-learning, coach, or education. At present, the platform is active in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, the UK, and Sweden.
With this acquisition, Studytube plans to accelerate its expansion into Germany, Belgium, the Nordics, and the UK. The company also aims to open offices in the Nordics soon.
Speaking about the company, CEO of Springest, Ruben Timmerman, said, "Springest offers companies and their employees the most comprehensive European training database. By combining our database with Studytube’s online learning and development platform, organisations utilising Springest can search, find and book courses, but also easily organise, manage, and deliver their learning & development in one place. By joining forces we become a complete and future-proof learning partner for our clients."
Nazo Moosa, Managing Partner, EIP, added, "The European edtech market is crowded with single-point software solutions. Studytube is the first to offer a fully integrated learning platform, consisting of a Learning Management System, a learning experience platform, an integrated authoring tool, and a learning marketplace. This makes Studytube the perfect company to integrate other successful single-point software solutions."
In addition, the latest acquisition will also see Studytube add over 30 large enterprises to their client base. These include T-Mobile, Vattenfall, Aegon, NS, Eneco, and STORK. All in all, Studytube currently serves over 300 mid to large enterprises across various industries.
