Sterling Partners’ Education Opportunity Fund Becomes Avathon Capital; Leads Funding Round to Help EdCast Drive Growth and Impact in Workforce Management and Corporate Education Markets
December 12, 2019 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–EdCast, a category-defining leader in AI-powered personalized learning and knowledge management for enterprise customers, announced today the close of its $35 million Series D financing round led by Avathon Capital, an investment platform headquartered in Chicago and a part of Sterling Partners. In backing the company, Avathon will support EdCast as it expands and accelerates its market and product development efforts to provide enhanced corporate learning and upskilling content for its two million paid users. Other Series D participants included new EdCast investor National Grid Partners and existing EdCast investors, including State Street Global Advisors, REV Venture Partners and others.
Exponential technologies, like artificial intelligence and automation, are driving digital disruption across all industries. Now more than ever, it is crucial for companies to embrace a culture of learning and upskilling with a corporate growth mindset. EdCast’s AI-powered Knowledge Cloud delivers a scalable and extensive platform that drives knowledge discovery with personalized content to enhance productivity and foster learning.
As the responsibilities for training, educating and developing employees continues to shift to employers, EdCast’s products and solutions are bringing increasing levels of upskilling directly into the heart of the digital workplace. EdCast has pioneered these functions by weaving them directly in to the flow of work, so its corporate learning solutions are seamlessly woven in to the software and tools employees already use every day, including Google Search, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, Salesforce, Slack, ServiceNow, VMware, and others.
EdCast’s award-winning platform is used internationally by Global 2000 companies and large government organizations, including companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Dell EMC, ANZ Bank, Schneider Electric, Jefferson Health, Mars Inc., NASSCOM, and the World Economic Forum, to help employees reach their full potential by providing the content, learning, and knowledge they need, when they need it, and in the flow of work.
“With business changing faster than ever, organizations around the world are now facing an urgent need to empower their employees with knowledge, learning, and upskilling,” said Karl Mehta, CEO and Founder of EdCast. “EdCast’s Future of Work innovations and leadership in delivering employee experience solutions to enterprises are attracting rapidly-growing customer and partner interest. So we are thrilled to now be partnering and working with Avathon Capital, which brings three decades of expertise and connections to EdCast that will help us continue to expand.”
“There is an urgent need to drive better alignment between learning outcomes and employment requirements. In the current environment, corporate leaders are taking the necessary steps to ensure that their talent strategies align with their business strategies,” said Shoshana Vernick, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Avathon. “I met Karl over two years ago and have watched EdCast evolve from a start-up pioneer to a market leader. Karl and his team have the vision, courage, and empathy required to bring the right solutions forward to this evolving market.”
EdCast will use this latest funding round to continue expanding its Knowledge Cloud, Content Marketplace, and MyGuide product offerings. The company will also continue hiring talented individuals who can serve its growing roster of customers and users across a number of positions, including sales, marketing, and product engineering. More information on the company’s current job openings can be found here.
About Avathon Capital
Avathon Capital is an investment platform with over $400 million of assets under management that is committed to fostering innovation and impact in the education and workforce management markets. Avathon’s principals are curious, creative, determined, and thoughtful investors. They show up prepared and ready to turn their relationships and experience into a competitive advantage for their partners.
Avathon selectively targets opportunities where it can invest $10 to $50 million of equity capital and take a meaningful ownership position in companies with the potential to become enduring and strategically important businesses in their market. Avathon, headquartered in Chicago and a part of Sterling Partners, traces its roots to a 30-year history as operators and investors in the education sector. For more information visit: www.avathoncapital.com.
About EdCast
EdCast is the AI-powered Knowledge Cloud solution for unified discovery, personalized learning, and knowledge management across the enterprise. Its award-winning platform is used internationally by Global 2000 companies and large government organizations to solve the discovery and curation problems across all external and internal knowledge sources. EdCast’s offerings include its Learning Experience Platform (LXP), Content Marketplace, and MyGuide’s in-app guides, intelligence and automation for business software. For more information visit EdCast’s website or follow us on Twitter @EdCast.
