Lessonly: Engaging Employees with Custom Online Training
Lessonly enables companies to develop content and assessment metrics that meet their needs.
Online training is becoming an increasingly competitive market as more employers seek effective, affordable platforms to educate employees. To achieve retention and accountability, employers seek an engaging user experience that’s adaptable to their company’s specific needs.
Lessonly, an AVG portfolio company and deal accessed by our The Yard Ventures fund for the Harvard community, has developed a new model for enterprise learning software. The company has experienced strong adoption and customer retention amid a crowded market, with consistent growth over the last several years.
Custom Training for All Employees
With Lessonly’s platform, employers have direct control over creating content, delivering training, and assessing performance. The software is designed to engage large teams and non-technical employees with a variety of training mediums, including lessons, simulations, quizzes, videos, and more. All content is stored in a searchable library for future reference.
Lessonly is a top-ranked Training eLearning Software Provider on G2, a leading peer-to-peer software review site. In particular, Lessonly’s software has found traction with small and mid-sized businesses, serving over three million learners at over a thousand companies. Sales teams and contact centers have provided a majority of use cases to date, prompting the company to design their software to fit these environments.
The Power of our Global Community of Alumni
As Lessonly aims to expand and add larger enterprise clients, they’ve attracted established VCs in their sector to lead their last two financing rounds. The company’s recent $15 million Series C round was led by AXA Venture Partners, a highly experienced investor and part of the large, publicly traded AXA insurance group. The company’s prior round was led by Boston-based OpenView Partners, a top enterprise software growth investment fund.
AVG’s funds frequently leverage alumni networks to access deals and build relationships with entrepreneurs and established VCs. We are excited to share that our investment in Lessonly was a direct result of an introduction made by one of our Yard Ventures investors. We are fortunate to have so many alumni in our community offering introductions to great companies, assistance with our diligence, and time and expertise to our portfolio companies.
The Yard Ventures and AVG deployed capital in the Series C round led by AXA, along with AVG’s Blue Ivy Ventures (for the Yale community), Green D Ventures (for the Dartmouth community), Waterman Ventures (for the Brown community), and Total Access Fund. Allos Ventures, Atlas Peak Capital, Rethink Education, and Zendesk also participated in the round.