Workramp Raises $17M to Enhance Enterprise Learning

This year has seen a significant increase in the importance of remote learning and training for businesses aiming to maintain employee engagement and ensure current work practices, particularly as many employees are not working in traditional office settings—and, in some cases, those who joined in 2020 may have never personally met their colleagues.

WorkRamp, a company that has developed a platform to assist organizations in creating and distributing their own training resources to employees and partners, has just announced a new round of funding to support its accelerating growth. The company has secured $17 million in Series B funding, led by OMERS Ventures, with participation from Bow Capital.

The core value proposition of WorkRamp lies in its ability to simplify the creation of internal training and learning content, allowing companies to easily incorporate elements like assessments, videos, and presentations. By empowering businesses to develop these materials in-house, the resulting training is often more captivating and less formal.

“We are challenging established learning management system (LMS) providers, such as Cornerstone, with our concise training platform,” explained CEO and founder Ted Blosser. “Our goal is to replicate the consumer-level experience of Peloton, but within the realm of corporate training.”

Having originally been incubated at Y Combinator, the company has now raised a total of $27 million in funding.

This funding round follows a period of substantial growth for WorkRamp. Blosser stated that the platform currently serves approximately 250 customers, who have collectively created over 1 million courses. These customers include rapidly expanding technology companies like Zoom, Box, Reddit, and Intercom, in addition to larger organizations such as Disney, GlobalData, and PayPal. As the company expands, it will be interesting to observe its success in attracting more established companies that may be less focused on technology.

WorkRamp estimates that organizations collectively spend around $20 billion each year on corporate training, which has led to the emergence of numerous companies offering solutions in this market.

A quick search for WorkRamp reveals that many of its competitors are actively using the company’s name as a keyword to increase their visibility. The competitive landscape includes both large and small players, such as Leapsome, Capterra, Lessonly, LearnUpon (which recently secured significant funding), SuccessFactors, and TalentLMS.

WorkRamp’s approach is centered around the concept of the “creator,” a trend that has become increasingly prominent in the digital age. While YouTube pioneered the idea of “user-generated content,” platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter—along with smartphones and their video/photo capabilities—have made content creation and sharing widely accessible.

This trend has paved the way for a new perspective on traditionally less exciting areas, such as corporate training. Other startups, like Kahoot, have also leveraged this idea by enabling businesses to create interactive games for staff training.

WorkRamp aims to capitalize on this shift by empowering customers to move away from relying on external production companies or expecting WorkRamp to develop training materials for them. Instead, the individuals who will be using the training are given the ability to control the content creation process.

“We believe it’s essential for companies to be able to develop their own customer education programs,” Blosser noted. “This is a growing trend for clients who want to quickly onboard new employees and reduce costs.”

The company’s platform features an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, allowing users to easily create presentations, flashcards, and interactive questions. WorkRamp also plans to onboard additional consultants, similar to those at Accenture, to assist larger, less tech-savvy clients in maximizing the platform’s capabilities. It also offers integrations with popular third-party applications like Salesforce.com, Workday, and Zoom for both training creation and distribution.

“Since 2000, we’ve witnessed three significant technological shifts in the enterprise: the move from on-premise to SaaS, the rise of mobile technology, and most recently, widespread digital transformation across nearly every aspect of business,” stated Eugene Lee of OMERS Ventures. “The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of a digital-first strategy for both customers and employees across almost all industries. WorkRamp’s platform is crucial for empowering these key audiences now and in the future. We are confident in the company’s substantial potential and are excited to invest.” Lee will be joining the board of directors as part of this funding round.