Durham’s Bull City Venture Partners is putting its money behind a company based in California but with roots at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The training software company Learn to Win announced a $30 million Series A round Wednesday. Bull City Venture Partners was one of the multiple firms to invest in the startup along with the Westly Group, Norwest Venture Partners and Pear VC.
Founded in 2019 by two UNC alum, Learn to Win was developed with the idea of making learning a more interactive experience to cultivate stronger outcomes for users. Now, the company services over 75 enterprise customers, including the U.S. Navy and Airforce, AbbVie, and sports teams like the Los Angeles Rams of the National Football League and the University of Michigan football team.
Co-founder and General Partner of BCVP David Jones said his firm was drawn to invest in Learn to Win because of its accomplished co-founders — both of whom are UNC Morehead Scholars and Stanford MBAs.
"We don't try to do a ton of investments outside of our region," Jones said. "But in the last 18 months, it's really taken off with pulling in generative AI to automate some of the software."
Learn to Win CEO and co-founder Andrew Powell told Triangle Business Journal that he began developing this software during his days in the economics department as an undergraduate at UNC.
“I ended up running for student body president and my platform focused on making these teaching practices the norm across large lecture courses,” Powell said.
While Learn to Win did not receive any direct funding from the university, it did receive an undisclosed amount of support from the Carolina Angel Network, which helped launch the startup company along with the financial support from Bull City and other investors.
Bull City Venture Partners declined to share its exact investment in Learn to Win, but Jones said that their average investment ranges from $500,000 to $2.5 million.
"And this was certainly on the upper side of that," Jones said.
Learn to Win is a software company, meaning it's a "super high gross margin business," according to Jones. The startup's ability to grow quickly in a cash-efficient manner led Bull City Venture Partners to believe that Learn to Win could be revolutionary for training and learning.
Powell said he thinks his startup also stood out because of its strong connections with the U.S. Department of Defense.
“I think they saw the big potential within the commercial market as well as the ability to transform how enterprises do training to be much more agile, effective and responsive to business needs,” Powell said.
As of now, Learn to Win averages around 45 to 55 employees, many of whom are based in North Carolina with strong connections to UNC or the Research Triangle area. While the remote company does not have plans to move its headquarters out of Redwood City, California, it has considered branches in both D.C. and North Carolina.
Although Powell did not share Learn to Win’s revenue projection for this year, he did say it is expected to triple last year’s numbers. The startup also says it's been able to achieve 140 percent net revenue retention.