Degreed, a US-based personal development app developer and a graduate of educational services provider Kaplan’s Edtech accelerator, has received $35m in equity funding and $40m in debt financing.
The capital came from asset manager AllianceBernstein’s Growth Stage Capital unit, which also provided the $40m venture debt facility, venture capital firms Owl Ventures and Signal Peak Ventures, investment firm Jump Capital and VC fund GSV Accelerate.
Founded in 2012, Degreed has created a mobile app through which users can advance their personal development by practising a range of professional and informal skills each day.
The app features educational content curated from external online sources and can save each lesson the user has completed for future reference. It is marketed to both individuals and organisations.
Degreed will put the cash toward product development, with a focus on strengthening the app’s user experience and skill measurement mechanics, as it seeks to build expertise in integration, data science, machine learning and customer enablement.
The round brought Degreed’s total funding to about $150m according to company statements. It took part in the 2013 Kaplan Edtech Accelerator, enabling it to receive $150,000 in convertible debt from the corporate in addition to $20,000 in funding from Techstars, which manages the initiative.
Kaplan formed part of the $1.8m seed round Degreed closed the same year, joining angel investors Deborah Quazzo, Mark Cuban, Mike Levinthal, Chris Eyre, Larry Rosenberger and Walt Winshall.
The company said it had raised a total of $32m across a 2015 series A round led by Signal Peak Ventures and backed by Peak Ventures and individuals including Quazzo, and a 2016 series B led by Jump Capital that included Signal Peak, Rethink Education and GSV Accelerate.
Degreed most recently raised $42m in a March 2018 round co-led by Owl Ventures and Jump Capital that also featured Founders Circle Capital, GSV Acceleration Fund and Signal Peak Ventures.