Go1 raises $200m in Series D funding

Melvyn Lubega and Andrew Barnes

This Series D funding round was led by new investor SoftBank Vision Fund 2*, as well as AirTree Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, with additional investors Blue Cloud Ventures, Larsen Ventures, Scott Shleifer and John Curtius from Tiger Global, and TEN13.

Previous investors also contributed to the round, including M12 – Microsoft’s venture fund – Madrona Venture Group, SEEK, and Y Combinator. To date, the company has raised more than $280m total inclusive of previous rounds.

“The support and funding that Go1 has received in its lifetime have been monumental to the company’s growth thus far,” said Andrew Barnes, Go1’s CEO. “However, this is just the beginning. Expanding in the US will allow Go1 to better engage, communicate and support customers and partners, especially as they consider a new hybrid work model. As society transitions out of the pandemic, ensuring that employees have opportunities to explore learning and development resources will be essential for team retention and encouraging employee growth within the organisation."

“This latest round of funding will enable our team to not only expand internally with new global offices and job opportunities, but enables us to be hyper-focused on growing our user base and advancing our product features for our customers,“ Barnes said.

#StartupFunding101: Raising capital and going global in the edtech space

Evan-Lee Courie  25 May 2021

Go1 set out in 2015 to become a learning and professional development resource for organisations and a critical distribution partner for content providers. Its easy integration and breadth of content have led to widespread adoption on both sides - corporations that now have a single subscription for all workplace training needs, and corporate learning content creators whose insights can find their way to a larger audience.

Focus on scaling up and partnerships

With more than 70 percent of its new revenue generated from markets outside its home base in Australia, Go1 will focus on scaling up its team and partnerships with new platform content and resources. The company increased its user base more than 300% year-over-year, largely driven by rapid expansion into these markets and key government contracts with the Malaysian and Singaporean governments. Go1 foresees additional expansion opportunities in the United States and Europe through its growing integration with Microsoft Teams, Workday, SAP and more.

“Our team worked closely with Go1 on a Microsoft Teams integration to enable more enterprises to maintain corporate training remotely,” said Jeff Teper, Microsoft corporate vice president, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint. “As many companies navigate in-person work scenarios, a plan for hybrid engagement is critical. Employees and students can access one of the world’s largest libraries of online learning resources with Go1 in Microsoft Teams. Companies can also onboard new talent and ensure essential trainings are provided regardless of employee location.”

“We have seen demand for online learning ramp up, including on Trailhead, as the pandemic drives consumers online and companies need people with the right skills to rapidly develop and deploy digital experiences for their customers,” said Rob Keith, Head of Australia, Salesforce Ventures. “Go1 is well positioned to support learners and companies to develop the skills needed for today’s digital economy, with international growth and product innovation increasing the breadth and depth of its offering.”

Go1’s content aggregation approach reimagines corporate education, enabling organisations to utilize learning, training and certification content from a variety of resources via its SaaS platform or by integrating into existing learning systems.

“We have been working closely with the Go1 team for a number of years and are thrilled with the progress to date,” said Andrew Bassat, SEEK co-founder. “Our continued investment reflects our ongoing commitment to help Go1 achieve its potential to help people to up-skill and re-skill themselves for work, which will be critical as the world recovers from the global pandemic.”

* SoftBank Group Corp. has made capital contributions to allow investments by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 ("SVF 2") in certain portfolio companies. The information included herein is made for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy limited partnership interests in any fund, including SVF 2. SVF 2 has yet to have an external close, and any potential third-party investors shall receive additional information related to any SVF 2 investments prior to closing.