Sunlight, a London-based startup, has closed a £500,000 Seed round from Speedinvest, Seedcamp and Annection.
The learning and development platform, which seeks to allow employers to create an engaging work culture by enabling staff to take control of their professional development, says it is already working with Wonderbly, Skimlinks and Typeform.
Founded in March last year by siblings Carlos and Juan Lagrange, Sunlight has so far raised £600,000.
Carlos, CEO and co-founder, commented: “Our mission is to unlock the world’s potential. Learning opportunities are quickly becoming a key driver for the new generation entering the working world and we know that within the tech industry, scaleups need to find ways to stand out and attract talent when competing against goliaths. Offering opportunities to learn is a great way to attract and retain talented individuals within your business, as you grow. Sunlight makes this easier for everyone and democratises the old system many companies currently use.”
The money will be used to help power further expansion into new territories and sectors and to hire more people.
Carlos, added: “This Seed round is a key moment for us as we look to work with even more exciting companies and scale up the size of teams that the platform can support. We’ve been supported by an incredible list of investors and believe their expertise and connections will play a big role in the future 18 months of Sunlight’s journey.”
Erik Bovee, partner of Speedinvest, explained why he decided to back the startup: “ We are delighted to support Sunlight in this investment round. The team is stellar, and they have built a platform that is perfectly suited to the learning and development needs of high growth, new companies. It’s particularly relevant in the US market, where competition for top talent is fierce and employee training is a key part of retention. We are rolling Sunlight out to our own portfolio companies immediately, and look forward to supporting their growth, particularly in the US.”
Sia Houchagnia, from Seedcamp’s investment team, also commented: “We’ve been hugely impressed with Carlos and Juan at Sunlight and their focus on supporting and empowering employees to continue their own learning and development.
“They’ve got great proof of the benefits using Sunlight brings not just to the employees but to the scaling companies they work for. We see huge potential for Sunlight to grow as they develop their platform offering and are able to leverage the data they collect to recommend optimised learning paths to employees,” Houchagnia concluded.
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