£1m secured by knowledge experience platform
A Birmingham knowledge and experience platform has received a £1m investment from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund (MEIF) to accelerate its product developments.
Talkout will undergo a rebrand over the next 12 months and create up to 40 new roles in sales, engineering, finance and business development. The firm is looking to grow its blue chip customer base which already includes Halfords and Pets at Home and access a portion of the global learning and development market, valued at $302 billion per year.
The platform, REELYZE, aims to help companies unlock and share knowledge easily, especially for employees who are not head-office based.
Talkout says at the heart of REELYZE is a social engine and AI powered learning assistant delivering “conversational learning” at scale as well as solving knowledge retention and wellbeing challenges.
It hopes the platform can help tackle the UK’s productivity crisis, as the output per worker is estimated at up to 20% less productive than the USA.
Paul Putman, CEO at Talkout, says: “The investment will allow us to continue to develop and refine the platform and reach out to even more organisations. We believe this new approach to knowledge creation and learning is truly disruptive and will allow Talkout to become a UK tech company that can compete and win globally.”
Ian Fairclough, Investment Director at Midven, says: “We are backing a proven management who have developed a disruptive mobile first learning platform, addressing the large and growing L&D market. Talkout has already won several blue-chip customers, and this investment will allow for further product market fit refinement to win new business.”
Hannah Tapsell, Investment Manager at Mercia Asset Management, says: “Around 80% of the global workforce are considered deskless, leaving them largely underserved by traditional learning and development solutions. With its mobile-first approach, Talkout helps organisations to retain valuable knowledge and upskill workers through peer-to-peer learning. We are excited to be backing Paul and the team as they scale the business and further enrich the technology.”
The funding from MEIF came through the MEIF West Midlands Equity Fund managed by Midven, part of the Future Planet Capital Group, and the MEIF Early Stage and Proof of Concept Fund managed by Mercia Asset Management.
The MEIF project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.
