The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly accelerated the adoption of online education technologies—providing resources for students to continue their studies when in-person classes are not possible. Interestingly, this trend also extends to the professional sector.

LearnUpon, a Dublin-based startup specializing in e-learning platforms for businesses, has secured $56 million in funding to capitalize on the increasing demand for its services, particularly within the United States, which currently generates 70% of the company’s revenue.

The investment comes solely from Summit Partners. According to LearnUpon’s CEO and co-founder, Brendan Noud, the funds will be allocated to two primary areas. First, expanding the startup’s engineering and product teams (currently at 180 employees) to enhance capabilities in areas such as data analytics, offering customers deeper insights into how their training materials are utilized through its learning management system (LMS). Second, to bolster the sales team, especially in rapidly growing markets like the U.S., to reach larger corporate clients.

LearnUpon currently serves over 1,000 customers worldwide, including prominent organizations like Booking.com, Twilio, USA Football, and Zendesk. Remarkably, the eight-year-old company was already profitable and had previously raised only $1.5 million in funding.

“We’ve experienced substantial organic growth, especially over the past four to five years utilizing a SaaS model,” Noud explained. “However, we’ve now reached a point where the potential is immense, particularly with the rise in remote work. We aim to equip ourselves for significant expansion.”

The evolution of corporate learning mirrors that of online education for traditional students, though with some distinctions. Both sectors have seen a growing need to engage and connect with learners when in-person interaction is difficult or impossible, especially in recent months.

However, corporate learning was already a well-established market, with organizations consistently investing in online tools for training and professional development long before the pandemic created a necessity for it.

Corporate learning encompasses a wide range of activities, including employee onboarding, professional development, customer training, new product training, partner education, sales enablement, compliance programs, and the creation of training services offered to external parties. Industry estimates valued the corporate learning market at $64 billion in 2019, with LMS investments exceeding $9 billion that year, and both figures are continuing to grow.

This growth has benefited companies like LearnUpon, which provides solutions across all these areas and reports annual recurring revenue growth of over 50% for the last 12 consecutive quarters.

This success also highlights the competitive nature of the market.

“The LMS landscape is quite crowded, with potentially over 1,000 providers,” Noud noted, although he clarified that only around 10-15 represent direct competition. These include companies such as Cornerstone, TalentLMS from Epignosis, Docebo, and 360Learning.

Furthermore, companies expanding into corporate learning from adjacent areas pose additional competition. LinkedIn has significantly invested in learning to complement its recruitment and professional networking services, while Coursera and Kahoot, originally focused on the education sector, have also broadened their offerings to include business training and education. These represent further competitive challenges for companies like LearnUpon, which are specifically designed for the business market.

Noud believes LearnUpon’s comprehensive platform is a key differentiator. The platform supports both live and asynchronous (on-demand) learning, and the SaaS LMS is designed to manage learning environments for diverse audiences—including internal employees, partners, and customers. He contrasts this with many other solutions that are more specialized, often requiring organizations to manage multiple systems.

“Legacy platforms often suffer from complexity and poor customer support, which was a primary focus for us from the beginning,” he said, recalling the company’s early days. “Our initial hire was dedicated to customer support, and that commitment continues to drive our growth.”

Currently, LearnUpon does not focus on content creation itself. While it offers tools for building assessments and surveys, users can also import content developed with other e-learning authoring tools. Similarly, it does not provide its own live teaching platforms, instead allowing integration with platforms like Zoom.

While this is not a current priority, Noud acknowledges that competitors offering a complete, end-to-end solution may appeal to organizations seeking simplified procurement and greater control over both training delivery and content development, suggesting this could be a potential area for future development.

“In today’s knowledge-based economy, corporate learning is essential for organizations of all sizes—and the shift to remote work has only amplified the need for digital learning solutions,” stated Antony Clavel, a Principal at Summit Partners. “LearnUpon’s modern, cloud-based LMS, strong product development team, dedication to customer success, and efficient go-to-market strategy position it well to meet this growing demand. We are excited to support Brendan and the LearnUpon team in their next phase of growth.”

Clavel will be joining the LearnUpon Board of Directors as part of this investment round. The company has not disclosed its valuation.