HowNow, a UK-based learning experience platform (LXP) that helps companies onboard upskill and support employees faster everywhere they work, has raised $5 million (€4.6 million) in its Series A round led by Mercia Asset Management and the world’s leading learning company Pearson. With the funds, the startup plans to work for further international expansion, growth of the team, and development of features that scale knowledge sharing, making it easier to measure impact and connect learning and skills into the overall employee experience.
Co-founded in 2016 by Nelson Sivalingam, Kuvera Sivalingam and Ashish Kumar, HowNow provides a learning experience platform for organisations to engage, retain and develop their best people, connecting every employee with learning opportunities, skills and knowledge in the flow of work. Its platform includes a dashboard for companies to “track growth and skills progression” of its Workforce and create personalised learning programmes to close skill gaps. The company is on a mission to shake things up, aiming to make employee learning more engaging and collaborative – fit for the modern world.
Commenting on the funding, Co-founder & CEO of HowNow, Nelson Sivalingam, said:
In the era of exponential change, equipping people with the knowledge and skills to be successful at what they do at speed is one of the biggest challenges we face. With such continuous development, individuals and organisations can avoid becoming socially and economically obsolete. The traditional LMS is not fit for the demands of the modern Workforce. With HowNow, we’re excited to define how people learn in this new world of work. We are delighted to welcome Mercia and Pearson Ventures onboard as investors to help us hopefully build one of the most important companies of our time.
HowNow claims to have been used for companies such as Depop, Vanmoof, Permutive, and Checkout.com and by enterprise clients like Mercer, Telenor, Sanofi and Investec.
Daniela Tsoneva, Investor, Mercia, added:
We are excited to support Nelson and his team in their quest to transform workplace learning. HowNow’s dynamic matching technology ensures users receive the right learning content at the right time. The company is a pioneer in the relatively new but fast-growing learning experience sector and has the potential to become a market leader. The funding will help it expand its global footprint and continue its rapid growth trajectory.
Investor Mercia Asset Management has a presence across the UK with offices in places such as Bristol, Manchester, Nottingham, Leeds and Newcastle Upon Tyne.
Adding further about the investment, Vice President of Pearson Ventures, Pedro Vasconcellos, said:
Pearson Ventures is pleased to join forces with HowNow, an exciting Workforce learning company, to support their growth and explore ways to work together. Their strategy to leverage data to enable employees to take control of their learning experience and career development has exciting potential for the future of workforce learning.
In 2019, HowNow raised $3 million (£2.4 million) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Mark Pearson’sPearson’s Fuel Ventures. Other investors include Andy Murray OBE; Michael Whitfield and Chris Bruce (founders of Thomsons Online Benefits); Bernie Sinniah (former managing director at Citi Bank); and Alwin Magimay (a former partner at McKinsey), who also participated in this round.
