Jacksonville venture capital fund PS27 has partnered with Atlanta-based Panoramic Ventures to make a significant investment into a Philadelphia-based eLearning and human resource tech platform specialist.
The Pennsylvania company, named SkillCycle,works on human capital development.
Founded in 2019 as GoCoach, the company specialized in coaching and eLearning to serve mid-market and enterprise customers. But in January, the company rebranded and expanded to encompass new features and services in their ecosystem.
"I spent 20 years in HR vetting systems built by non-HR people that were essentially designed backwards," Skill Cycle CEO Kristy McCann Flynn said.
Flynn said she wanted to make sure she was democratizing upskilling to make sure companies of all sizes ensured employee growth, satisfaction and retention.
She stressed the importance of companies following through after evaluations to help employees learn and grow in areas they might be lacking, which is one of the many functions her artificial intelligence-based platform has incorporated.
As far as economic moat, Mcann Flynn told the Business Journal Tuesday there are few companies in the way of competitors, yet, although some of the global HR giants are beginning to enter their space of management and learning, that isn't a concern.
Key features of SkillCycle's ecosystem of services include performance management, engagement and learning plus a certified coaching marketplace to serve the needs of mid-markets and enterprises.
McCann Flynn said SkillCycle has hundreds of customers, including Fortune 500 companies, with one of her company's first customers on the First Coast.
The amount of PS27 and Panoramic Ventures' investment was not disclosed.
SkillCycle is the 8th company — and the 7th in a software as a service company — that PS27 has invested into with its Rhea Fund. Within its first 20 months in operation, the Rhea Fund is 300% on invested capital, said Christine Caven, PS27's director of communication.
"All of our companies are experiencing extraordinary growth this year," she said, "in spite of higher interest rates and a challenging economic situation."
