Teach on Mars completes €7M funding round to finance the next-phase deployment of its mobile learning technology
Teach on Mars, Europe’s leading mobile-native learning technology provider, today announces the completion of its third round of funding, worth €7 million. This new investment is led by Omnes and Région Sud Investissement (advised by Turenne Capital), and also includes the company’s existing investors, who have strengthened their capital position. This new funding will directly fuel Teach on Mars’ development in three critical areas: its commercial expansion, most notably in international markets; the extension and reinforcement of its content partner network; and the acceleration of its Research and Development programme.
Founded in 2013 in Sophia-Antipolis on the French Riviera by Vincent Desnot, Tanguy Deleplanque and Quentin Dérunes, Teach on Mars launched a digital learning revolution by being the first company to recognise the potential of the modern mobile device to redefine the learner experience. Its 100% mobile-native learning environment incorporating solutions for the creation, distribution and management of professional training and personal development content through users’ smartphones was the first of its kind in the world. With Teach on Mars, the smartphone becomes a personal learning assistant, enabling users to learn anytime, anywhere and on any device. The company rapidly became a European leader in next-generation learning solutions, growing in just over five years into a team of nearly 60 staff serving more than 100 blue-chip organisations and world-renowned brands. To date, Teach on Mars has been deployed to a million learners and operates in more than 20 languages and over 60 countries throughout the world. Its client portfolio includes more than half the companies in France’s CAC 40 and world leaders in numerous sectors of activity, including luxury goods and financial services, as well as highly reputed training organisations.
This latest round of funding will see Teach on Mars enter a completely new phase of its growth, consolidating its position as European champion in the mobile learning sector with the explicit objective of leadership on a global scale. It will enable the company to implement a three-prong growth strategy through 2019 and into the mid-term. Firstly, it will continue extending its international presence, primarily though the formalisation of Value-Added Reseller distribution partnerships in Europe. Secondly, it will accelerate its programme of partnerships with providers of premium mobile-first learning content. This will strengthen its unique offering of multilingual learning resources specifically designed for deployment in a connected, mobile learner experience. Finally, it will maintain an aggressive R&D policy in order to consolidate its technological leadership. This will specifically include further investment in the development of smart algorithms leveraging the latest advances in artificial intelligence. These algorithms hold the key to significantly reducing the cost of creating and indexing learning content. They will also enable radically enhanced competency and performance management through the automatic construction of ultra-personalised training paths based on real-time semantic analysis of the needs, progress and learning preferences of individual users.
“Since 2013, Teach on Mars has moved comfortably ahead of the first-generation pack in the race to make digital learning mobile-first,” explains Vincent Desnot, Co-Founder and CEO of Teach on Mars. “The next challenge is to deliver on the promise of “permanent learning”, where every aspect of the user’s connected lifestyle is linked to his ongoing development. To do that, we must continue to pursue our objective of offering the finest learning ecosystem in the market. Teach on Mars will ultimately become more than a digital learning solution: it will be a tool for the continued employability of the new generations entering the workforce and a means to harness the power of collective intelligence for our client organisations.”
This new funding round marks the arrival of two new institutional investors, Omnes and Turenne Capital’s Région Sud Investissement fund.
“We are delighted to join forces with Teach on Mars for the coming years. Omnes truly believes in the power and the relevance of a mobile-first experience when it comes to the digital learning space. The impressive execution so far by Vincent Desnot and his team led us to support their international expansion plan as well as their product roadmap”, says Xavier Brunaud, Director at Omnes.
“An undisputed pioneer and leader in the fast-growing mobile learning marketplace, Teach on Mars has rapidly succeeded in convincing more than 50% of France’s CAC 40 companies thanks to the quality of its solution. We are proud to support Vincent Desnot through this new growth plan designed to reinforce the company’s international presence and consolidate its dominant position” states Marie Desportes, General Partner at Turenne Capital.