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The corporate training market, which Allied Market Research estimates is worth more than $400 billion, has grown dramatically in recent years as companies save money on training their employees. A PwC report found that by educating employees, a company can save 43 percent to 66 percent in wages over layoffs alone.
But it remains a challenge to quickly build and analyze the impact of learning programs for organizations of a limited size. In the year In a 2019 survey, Harvard Business Review found that 75% of managers were unhappy with their employer’s learning and development (L&D) practices, and only 12% of employees applied new skills learned through L&D programs to their jobs.
In search of an answer, a trio of Cambridge scientists – Chibeza Agley, Sarah Achory and Jürgen Fink – co-founded Obrizum, a company that applies “adaptive learning” techniques to highly skilled and talented workers. Using the AI engine, the co-founders say Obrizum can tailor corporate learning experiences to individual employees, identify knowledge gaps and measure learning efficiency.
“It’s becoming increasingly clear that businesses will continue to invest heavily in effective, successful training and knowledge sharing,” Obrizum CEO Agley told TechCrunch in an interview. “We’re addressing a pervasive industry issue of efficiency. Businesses have less time than ever to create learning or assessment programs. Meanwhile, there’s more and more learning to do.”
Image Credits: Obrizim
So how does Obrizum plan to achieve this? By creating what Agli calls “knowledge spaces” instead of online training courses. Obrizum works with the company’s existing training resources, including webcasts, PDFs, slide decks, infographics and even virtual reality content into white-label modules that can be adjusted based on student performance through regular assessments.
Obrizum’s algorithms can both strengthen concepts and emphasize weak areas, Agli said, by taking guesswork and “click manipulation” (i.e., fast-forwarding through videos).
“Obrizum makes it easy to express and use valuable information that cannot be used for learning or training in a traditional way,” said Agley. “At Obrizum, the individual’s data is used to benefit the individual – as it should be. Then, at the enterprise level, machine learning can be used to identify trends and patterns that can benefit the masses. . . . Managers can view usage statistics and groups of students relative to performance against key concepts. You can view real-time summary information including administrative level users can drill down into the performance and activity of individual users.
For employees who aren’t comfortable with Obrizum’s analysis of widespread workplace surveillance, fortunately they can identify themselves and request deletion of their personal data through self-service tools in compliance with GDPR, says Agli.
As Obrizum looks to the future, the company will invest in more comprehensive content automation and analytics technologies, integration with third-party services, and collaboration and sharing capabilities, Agley said. It’s under pressure to stand out from competing platforms like Learnsoft, which automates training and tracks metrics like accreditation, as well as generates certificates and certifications for management reviews and audits.
Obrizum also competes with Workera, a precision upskilling platform; software-as-a-service tool GrowthSpace; and to a lesser extent Go1, which provides online learning materials and tools for businesses that consume content from multiple publishers and silos. The good news is, corporate learning software continues to be a lucrative space, with investors pouring more than $2.1 billion between February 2021 and February 2021 into various startups focused on “skilling” employees, according to Crunchbase data.
Image Credits: Obrizim
Agli said Obrizum currently works with about 20 enterprise customers, including a growing number of government, aerospace and defense organizations. When asked about Obrizum’s revenue, he complained, saying it has increased 17x since the end of 2020 – largely due to customer digital transformation efforts launched during the pandemic.
“Obrizum is a sector-agnostic solution that is key to our ability to scale quickly and robustly even in a challenging macroeconomic climate. . . . Even when it comes to experience platforms, Obrizum stands out for its level of automation, breadth of flexibility and the breadth of analytics it offers,” said Agley. Despite the economic outlook, we are incredibly optimistic about the opportunities in our sector.Learning is and will always be important in the world of work and the post-pandemic world, the market for corporate education is expanding rapidly.
To date, Obrizum – employs 38 employees – has raised $17 million in venture capital. This includes an $11.5 million Series A round led by Guinness Ventures with participation from Beaubridge, Juno Capital Partners and Qatar Science & Tech Holdings and Celeres Ventures.
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