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Ufi Ventures Bulletin:
Spring 2023
The latest insights in EdTech for adult skills for work
It has been an exciting start to the year for us, with three new investments announced and lots of exciting activity across the portfolio.
Updates in this edition of the Bulletin include:
Investment News - Assemble You secures £310k pre-seed closed late last year; Data Literacy Academy closes $525k funding round; TaskHer raises £200k pre-seed round.
Market Insight – Latest Q4 VocTech Market Activity report available now.
Useful content – Social Tech Amplifier launched.
Portfolio News - CAPSLOCK and Mobilise win awards at the Learning Technology awards.
We have also been focusing on our investment priority areas for the year ahead, with a specific interest in the green economy and sectors that have deep skills shortages, such as construction, hospitality, and social care.
As always, we would love to hear from you if you are a founder or know a start-up operating in the VocTech space.
We hope you enjoy reading!
The Ufi Ventures Team
Before we jump in, please be sure to follow us @ufiventures on LinkedIn and Twitter for regular updates on what we're up to.
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INVESTMENTS
Ufi Ventures lead investment into Assemble You
Ufi Ventures leads £310k pre-seed investment into Assemble You, the audio innovation team bringing podcast-style courses to the learning industry.
Podcast listeners will reach over 500m in the next two years, however audio remains largely underserved in corporate learning programmes. By producing succinct, structured, audio courses Assemble You serves two key learner groups; screen-fatigued knowledge workers learning on the go, and deskless frontline workers without regular access to a desktop screen.
Assemble You will use this first round of funding to grow production capacity and market reach, with a primary focus on supporting existing clients and attracting new B2B revenue.
Ufi Ventures invest in Data Literacy Academy
Data Literacy Academy is aiming to address the large shortage of data skills in the UK. The online learning platform has secured £440k in pre-seed investment, putting it on course to grow and expand into more markets.
Upskilling and empowering employees to be more data literate has a multitude of benefits, including improved decision making, more innovation and productivity, and better employee and customer experience.
This pre-seed investment round of £440k was led by Haatch Ventures with backing from Ufi Ventures and private investors. Data Literacy Academy aims to help 10,000 businesses and their employees achieve data literacy by 2030, enabling improved decision making and increased productivity.
Ufi Ventures invest in TaskHer, alongside two UK impact investors
TaskHer, the online booking platform helping homeowners book professional tradeswomen, announced that it has raised £200k in a pre-seed funding round from a trio of UK impact investors.
Launched in July 2022, TaskHer currently helps people book skilled electricians, plumbers and heating engineers. Currently only 3% of professionals working in these trades are female but this is something the company is looking to change. With more than 30% of customers so far making a repeat booking through the platform, and tradeswomen receiving market-leading rates of pay, the number of users joining the platform is on the rise.
The investment from Bethnal Green Ventures, Resolution Foundation and Ufi Ventures will be used to develop the platform and to support and build the growing community of tradeswoman using TaskHer to access well paid, secure work.
VOCTECH MARKET INSIGHTS
This month, we have published our latest report in partnership with Tyton Partners, highlighting the key learnings from VocTech market activity across Q4 2022. The report explores the latest developments in the market, set against the backdrop of the challenging macro environment.
Highlights include:
The skills mismatch is in the “green transition” continues to be a focus, as countries move towards carbon neutrality. The likely net gain of jobs – a McKinsey report on the net-zero transition states that the transition to green energy by 2050 will add about 200m jobs globally but also lead to the loss of 185m jobs globally – is forecast to be disruptive and require extensive reskilling and upskilling.
Organisations continue to suffer skilled labour shortages – and in and of itself, this is likely to have hindered growth. Particularly affected sectors include healthcare, construction, hospitality, agriculture, logistics and education.
NEWS & USEFUL CONTENT
Upcoming Event!
Tackling the skills crisis: what role can early-stage funding play?
Members from the Ufi Ventures team will be speaking at this year's Bett in March 2023. The three day event brings together educators from across the globe.
Ufi Ventures will be sharing the trends, technologies and approaches they have backed and the companies helping to tackle the skills crisis. You’ll find them on the Bett Futures stage at 15:45 on Thursday 30th March.
You’ll also hear about the journey from ‘idea’ to ‘market’ from David Bartlett, founder of Purlos. David’s team works with staff and students across the UK to improve the learner experience and reduce drop-out rates.
Insight:
Where are the startups developing skills for the freelance and gig economies?
Ufi Ventures' Ellasaid Woodhouse explores the short and long-term prospects for skills development in the freelance/gig economies.
Update:
Social Tech Amplifier announces 11 new ventures
The Social Tech Amplifier has announced their first cohort of 11 ventures, each focused on developing and implementing tech solutions to help tackle youth employment.
The partnership between Catch22, Ufi VocTech Trust and Social Tech Trust, will help the new ventures unlock opportunities in the public sector supply chain and prepare them for scale through venture development activities and access to investment.
Update:
ImpactVC official launch
ImpactVC are excited to officially launch their organisation, bringing together a community of VCs to accelerate impact within venture investment.
ImpactVC exists to unlock venture capital’s ability to solve the world’s most pressing challenges through sharing knowledge, tools and resources.
Read:
European Edtech Funding Report 2023
Our friends at Brighteye have recently published their European Edtech Funding Report 2023.
The report takes a deep dive into venture funding from the last 12 months across global and European Edtech. Highlights include data showing European Edtech showing more resilience than other major Edtech regions and much more.
Funding news:
The Open University
The Open University is supporting businesses in technology-enhanced learning with up to £50,000 for product innovation. The funding comes as part of the IET EdTech Foundry, the new online business accelerator.
The foundry will be supporting 12 projects with up to £50,000 each along with a package of infrastructure, enterprise support and coaching to take your businesses to the next stage. The funding is designed to support startups less than three years old and established companies with significant new product development.
Portfolio companies win at Learning Technologies Awards
A huge congratulations to the team at CAPSLOCK for winning gold at the 2022 Learning Technologies Awards in the 'Best Online Distance Learning Programme' category in November. You can read about the win in their blog.
It was also great to see Mobilise pick up Silver in the 2022 Learning Technology Awards in the category 'Best Use of Social and Collaborative Technologies'.
Catch-up:
Impact investing in technology to address skills and employment challenges
During the Week of VocTech, Ufi Ventures, the Resolution Foundation and guests explored the future of investment in impact with a focus on skills technology.
The panel of speakers included Ufi Ventures Director Helen Gironi, TaskHer Co-Founder Paul Moynihan and many more. A recording of the event is now available to watch online.
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