Simply months after its valuation surpassed A$3 billion, Brisbane office studying platform Go1 has raced away with the 2023 Startup Day by day Greatest in Tech Awards’ Scaleup of The 12 months award, offered by AWS Startups.
Taking out one of many high trophies from the 2023 Startup Day by day Greatest in Tech Awards gala occasion in Sydney, Go1 was voted Scaleup of The 12 months, forward of finalists, Melbourne high-speed 3D metallic printing innovators SPEE3D and fast-growing fintech Shift.
Judged by business leaders throughout Australia’s startup ecosystem, Go1 was chosen for its game-changing influence throughout eLearning on a worldwide scale. Greater than eight million individuals have taken their programs for office studying and growth in what Go1 dubs ‘the world’s most complete on-line library of studying sources’.
Chatting with Startup Day by day after accepting the award on behalf of the corporate, Mark Dick, Head of Gross sales at Go1, mentioned the enterprise has met the market the place it’s at.
“There’s simply a possibility now inside the studying house. It’s a sizzling subject,” he mentioned.
“We have now the challenges of the workforce almost about reskilling and upskilling to cater for the way forward for work for organisations. Our resolution right this moment helps organisations meet these wants and rising calls for.”
Co-founded by college mates Andrew Barnes, Vu Tran, Chris Hood and Chris Eigeland in a storage in Brisbane, the edtech unicorn bought its massive break in 2015 when their internet growth firm was accepted to the American tech Y-Combinator accelerator.
Go1’s software program was shortly snapped up as on-line studying exploded all through the pandemic. Integrating with HR platforms and office apps, the tech is now extensively used to assist with worker engagement (and because of this, employees retention and productiveness), in addition to addressing the abilities hole.
Award presenter John Kearney, Head of Startups AWS, ANZ, giving the Scaleup of The 12 months award to Go1, accepted by Mark Dick, Head of Gross sales. Picture: Startup Day by day.
On being voted Scaleup of The 12 months, Dick mentioned: “I feel it’s because of the progress that we’ve managed to realize as an organisation over the previous few years, amid the difficult backdrop of the economic system. We’ve been very privileged that our prospects, our inner staff and the relaxation of studying ecosystem has helped us develop even via these difficult occasions.”
The edtech scaleup’s investor base contains M12, Microsoft’s enterprise capital arm, Madrona Enterprise Group, Salesforce Ventures, AirTree and SEEK.
In June 2022, Go1’s US$100 million (AUD $154 million) increase positioned the corporate’s valuation to greater than US$2 billion (A$2.86 billion at trade charges on the time), having turn out to be a ‘unicorn’ (value $1bn) with a Softbank-led Collection D increase in mid 2021.
After buying UK content material curation startup Anders Pink initially of 2023, Go1 topped up the capital reserves once more in Might with an undisclosed spherical backed by Perception Companions, alongside buying German studying app Blinkist.
With that type of gasoline within the tank, they’re not brief on the ‘assume massive’ mentality.
“We hope to succeed in one billion learners,” Mark Dick mentioned.
“Our mission is to unlock individuals’s constructive potential via a love of studying. If we will unlock a billion learners’ full potential, then hopefully at some point we will even have a constructive influence on the world.”
It’s honest to say they’re nicely on their method, in lots of locations all over the world. Their largest market is at present North America, adopted by Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Center East.
Reflecting that, Go1’s workforce has soared previous 1000 staff throughout 13 places of work together with america, South Africa, Vietnam, the UK and Malaysia.
Bringing collectively content material curated by 250 content material suppliers, one other main ingredient of Go1’s scaleup success has been its strategic acquisitions and partnerships. Go1 has indicated that its will improve the usage of AI in Blinkist’s textual content summarisation course of for higher studying.
Its vary of different content material suppliers contains Thrive, Skillsoft, Pluralsight and Harvard Enterprise Publishing.
They’ve additionally been working with the Australian, Malaysian and Singaporean governments to assist upskill residents in key areas of social change. A current instance is Go1’s eLearning program with social enterprise Problem DV and the Queensland Authorities to coach public sector staff on home and household violence. Greater than 85,000 Queensland Authorities staff enrolled within the coaching between 2021 and 2022.
Congratulations to the Go1 staff, and the Australian scaleups seeking to be part of them subsequent on the unicorn record.
See the total record of 2023 Startup Day by day Awards winners right here.
This text is dropped at you by Startup Day by day, with the assist of AWS Startups.