Degreed

Degreed is an education technology company that is engaged in enabling and recognizing professional and lifelong learning and skills. The platform allows users to learn, develop and measure their skills. Degreed is free for individuals. An enhanced version, Degreed for Enterprise, connects internal learning and talent systems to worldwide ecosystems of free, open and paid learning resources, and is available to organizations for a fee as a hosted, cloud-based solution.[1] Degreed is based in San Francisco, CA with offices in Salt Lake City, UT and Leiden, The Netherlands.[2]

Degreed, Inc.
IndustryEducation Technology
Founded2012
Founders
  • David Blake (Executive Chairman of the Board)
  • Eric Sharp (former CTO / Advisor)
  • David Wiley
HeadquartersPleasanton, CA Salt Lake City, UT
Key people
  • Chris McCarthy (CEO)
  • Scott Smith (CTO)
  • Kat Kennedy (CXO)
  • Jeff Sherlock (CPO)
  • Marc Eberhart (CMO)
  • TJ Williams (CSO)
  • Nate Kimmons (Chief of Staff)
  • Kelly Palmer (CLO)
Products
  • Degreed for Me
  • Degreed for Enterprise
  • Degreed Skill Certification
Websitedegreed.com

History

David Blake, David Wiley, and Eric Sharp founded Degreed in March 2012 with a mission to "Jailbreak the Degree" and become the world's first lifelong learning platform to track, discover, and recognize all learning.[2]

In November 2012, Degreed launched in early Beta to 20,000 users who joined as 'Founding Scholars' to the platform. In January 2013, following a crowdfunded launch, Degreed launched to the public. In the spring of 2013 Degreed raised a $1.8M Seed Round from top investors from the business, venture capital, and the edtech industries, including Deborah Quazzo, Mark Cuban, Mike Levinthal, Chris Eyre, Larry Rosenberger, Kaplan, and Walt Winshall.[3]

In the fall of 2014, the company launched the Degreed for Enterprise platform to help organizations empower and measure all learning.[4][5] Degreed raised a $7M Series A round in the spring of 2015, led by Signal Peak Ventures, with Peak Ventures, Deborah Quazzo, and other internal investors.[6][7] In January 2016, Degreed raised a $25M Series B led by Jump Capital, along with GSV Acceleration, Signal Peak, Rethink Education, and other existing investors.[8]

In March 2016, Degreed acquired European education technology startup, Gibbon.[9]

In March 2018, Degreed raised a $42M Series C funding round co-led by Owl Ventures and Jump Capital, along with Founders Circle Capital and existing investors. Along with the funding announcement, Degreed Co-Founder David Blake took a new position as Executive Chairman of the Board and announced Chris McCarthy as Degreed's new Chief Executive Officer.[10]

In June 2018, Degreed acquired New York-based online learning provider, Pathgather.[11]

In December 2019, Degreed acquired London-based total talent platform, Adepto.[12]

Products

Degreed provides a service that allows individuals and organizations to track, share, curate and validate their learning and skills from any source, including and not limited to: live and online courses, articles, blogs, videos, podcasts, work experience, skills, and events.[13]

In 2016 Degreed launched Skill Certification, a scientifically-backed, universal process that combines skill evidence, data science, endorsers, and reviews by an expertise panel which result in a final skill level ranking. Degreed Skill Certification uses adaptive comparative judgement, a method that reduces many forms of bias such as gender and age discrimination. Using this product, individuals can receive skill credentials at any skill level for over 1,500 different skills.[14]

In addition to the web-based platform, Degreed offers a mobile app, available for free on iOS and Android devices.[15]

Reception

According to the director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, Anthony Carnevale, services such as Degreed only take into account the time spent learning, rather than how much has actually been learnt.[3]

Degreed's customer base grew to nearly 100 clients following the launch of Degreed for Enterprise, winning multiple awards in 2015 and 2016. Angel investor Mark Cuban has said "Degreed allows organizations to inventory their existing employees, train them, and track it all. And, when employees do have external training or experience, have the company give them credit for it. I think that’s critical.”

In 2018, following the launch of Skill Certification, Degreed's client base grew to over 150 organizations. Of Skill Certification, Beth Davies, Former Director, Learning & Development at Tesla said "Skill Certification has the true potential to be the great equalizer that we don't have right now." [16]

Awards
  • Gartner 2014 Top 5 Cool Vendors in Education[17]
  • 2015 Brandon Hall Group Gold Award: Best Advance in Learning Management Technology[18]
  • Digital Innovation in Learning Awards 2015[19]
  • Top 6 E-learning tool of 2015[20]
  • Best of ELearning! 2015[21]
  • Training Industry Top 20 Learning Portal Company 2016[22]
  • EdTech Digest 2016 Cool Tool Award Finalist[23]
  • Aragon Research 2016 Hot Vendor in Learning[24]
  • The Learning and Performance Institute (LPI)'s The Learning Awards 2016 Silver Award, Learning Provider of the Year[25]
  • Starr Conspiracy InfluenceHR 2016 Learning Brand Velocity Award[26]
  • 2016 Chief Learning Officer Learning in Practice Award, Bronze in Excellence in Technology Innovation[27]
  • 2016 Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) CODIE Best Corporate/Workforce Learning Solution Finalist[28]
  • 2016 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Award, Silver, Best Advance in Learning Technology Implementation[29]

References
  1. "Say Hello To The University Of Microsoft". Fast Company. 2015-06-17. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  2. Empson, Rip. "Degreed Wants To Jailbreak The College Degree". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  3. Mansour, Iris (15 August 2013). "Fortune.com". Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  4. Bersin, Josh. "Use Of MOOCs And Online Education Is Exploding: Here's Why". Forbes. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  5. Wang, Amy X. "Companies are so bad at helping workers develop their careers, most are training themselves". Quartz. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  6. "Degreed raises $7M to transform higher education : Silicon Slopes". siliconslopes.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  7. Singer, Natasha. "The Must-Attend Event for Education Technology Investors". Bits Blog. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  8. "Degreed Gets To Work: Collects $21M in Second Fundraise in 10 Months (EdSurge News)". EdSurge. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  9. Ha, Anthony. "Degreed acquires European education startup Gibbon". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  10. Lynley, Matthew. "Degreed gets $42M to help build a tool to help employees learn the right skills". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  11. "Degreed Acquires Online Learning Platform Pathgather - EdSurge News". EdSurge. 2018-06-20. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  12. "Degreed Buys HR Platform to Improve Corporate Learning Offerings - EdSurge". EdSurge. 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2020-04-02.
  13. Porter, Caroline; Korn, Melissa (2014-03-04). "Can This Online Course Get Me a Job?". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  14. "This Company Wants to Help You Hire for Skills, Not Credentials - EdSurge News". EdSurge. 2017-09-26. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  15. "Degreed Expands With Launch of First Mobile Application Following Massive Surge In Education Technology". The EdTech Roundup. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  16. Degreed (2018-03-06), Skill Certification | Degreed, retrieved 2018-03-12
  17. "Cool Vendors 2014: The Digital Age Forces Everyone to Confront 'Big Change'". www.gartner.com. Retrieved 2017-01-24.
  18. "Brandon Hall Group". brandonhall.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  19. "Digital Innovation in Learning Awards | Winners". dilas.org. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  20. "Top Six E-Learning Tools for 2015". E-Learning 24/7 Blog. 2015-09-11. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  21. "Best of Elearning! 2015 Finalists Revealed". 2Elearning.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  22. "2016 Top 20 Learning Portal Companies List | Training Industry". www.trainingindustry.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  23. victorrivero (2016-03-15). "2016 – Finalists & Winners". edtechdigest.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  24. "Hot Vendors in Learning, 2016 | Aragon Research". Aragon Research. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  25. Hearn, Giles (2016-02-05). "2016 Learning Awards winners announced - Learning and Performance Institute". Learning and Performance Institute. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  26. Conspiracy, The Starr. "And the InfluenceHR Award Goes to …". Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  27. "2016 Learning In Practice Award Winners". Chief Learning Officer - CLO Media. 2016-09-28. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  28. "2016 Finalists". www.siia.net. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
  29. "Brandon Hall Group". www.brandonhall.com. Retrieved 2016-11-03.
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