Sales Impact Academy (SIA), a London-based go-to-market learning platform, has recently raised $22 million in new funding to accelerate the growth and development of its learning solutions.
The investment was led by Boston-based HubSpot Ventures and MIT Investment Management Company, in partnership with existing investors Stage 2 Capital and Emerge Education.
Nearly every business-to-business technology company in the world is looking to upskill their existing go-to-market teams and recruit more quality talent in a competitive market with massive demand and limited supply. However, enablement teams are already struggling to keep up with the demands of training related to their companies’ own products and solutions, and quickly fall behind in the complex task of developing core skills-based learning programs from the ground up for every member of the go-to-market organization. The SIA technology platform coupled with its best-in-class live curriculum, taught by the world’s elite go-to-market practitioners, solves this problem on a global scale, the company said in a statement.
Sales Impact Academy offers ongoing education and professional development across the go-to-market function covering sales, customer success, marketing, management, and operations. It has over 40 courses taught live by the biggest names in the industry. The platform currently supports the skills development of over 14,000 learners across 260 customers including HubSpot, GitHub, Gong, Klaviyo, G2, 6sense, Rubrik & Thoughtspot.
Paul Fifield, Co-founder & CEO of Sales Impact Academy, said,
“Half the world’s companies are selling business to business, and the growth engine of those companies is the go-to-market team. It blows my mind every day that, unlike law, finance, or HR, there is no structured learning or education for go-to-market teams, either as a student or an in-work professional. It means everyone is learning as they go, with the education burden falling on the companies themselves, who are simply not natural educators. The net result is average internal learning programs and a profession in utter chaos. Given that these teams are responsible for the growth of half the world’s GDP, ensuring they have strong learning and development resources couldn’t be more mission-critical.”
The fresh capital will enable SIA to develop more curriculum and continue to build out its underlying learning technology platform.
Navneeth Harikumar, Global Investment Team with the MIT Investment Management Company, said,
“We see a clear lack of accessible quality education targeted toward go-to-market professionals. SIA is a mission-driven team tirelessly solving this problem and we are excited to support them as they bring innovative education solutions to enterprises worldwide.”
Sales Impact Academy’s over 70 instructors include people like Mark Roberge (Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital & Former CRO at HubSpot), Sarah Brazier (Account Executive at Gong and Founding Coach at SDR Nation), Chris Voss (Former lead international hostage negotiator, FBI), Sam Nelson (SDR Leader at Outreach), Dan Steinman (Chief Evangelist at Gainsight), and Elissa Fink (Former CMO & Advisor, Tableau) among others.
Brandon Greer, Head of HubSpot Ventures, added,
“There is a massive opportunity to provide world-class go-to-market educational content to professionals in sales and marketing roles as they seek to grow their careers, upskill, and contribute meaningfully to their organizations. SIA is seizing this opportunity while building a real community in the process. We have conviction that SIA can become the digital-first standard for achieving early go-to-market excellence.”
Sales Impact Academy has grown from 25 to 125 employees over the past year, from 82 to over 260 customers, and has seen 500% year-on-year growth. Its learning community has grown from about 3000 to almost 15,000 professionals, making it the largest go-to-market learning community in the world.
