Flexible online learning
At your own time and pace
With personal guidance
Amsterdam, January 11, 2022
Winc Academy today announced a $3 million funding round led by Rubio Impact Ventures and Dutch Founders Fund. The online education platform is rapidly developing and, with this growth money, can meet the high demand for upskilling and retraining courses in tech. The Amsterdam scale-up therefore increased the number of active students eightfold last year, driven by the trend of digitization and accelerated by Covid-19.
The funding enables Winc Academy to prepare 20,000 adults for jobs as programmers, data analysts, or other tech careers within a few years. Because the courses are fully online, can be taken at your own pace and there is personal guidance, they are easy to combine with work and personal life. According to Winc, this is the weapon to combat the staff shortage in tech.
“Winc Academy strives for lifelong learning & job security for everyone. They offer everyone with ambition and perseverance the chance for a future-proof tech career. The impact driver is firmly anchored in their DNA”, says Willemijn Verloop, founder of Rubio Impact Ventures.
“In just 3 years, this team has built a scalable edtech platform with very high success rates. By bringing together industry experts, mentors, and students, Winc Academy is building a much-needed international marketplace for online education”, fills Patrick Kerssemakers from Dutch Founders Fund on.
This news follows the appointment of Joran van Aart as CEO in May 2021, who joined the founding team consisting of Marijn Pijnenborg and Carla Snepvangers. Winc Academy will expand further in the short term with a COO and senior roles in education, marketing, financial strategy, and technology.
Vivid Ventures, Heleen Dura-Van Oord's angel investor fund that led the first funding round in 2019, is also participating in the current seed round.
“We are thrilled to have the support of Rubio, Dutch Founders Fund, and our current investors. They offer a nice mix of expertise in digital products, international marketplaces and social entrepreneurship. This helps us achieve our mission. After all, everyone deserves the chance for a future-proof career and thus a better future.”, says Joran van Aart, CEO of Winc Academy.
About Winc Academy
Winc Academy is an Amsterdam-based online education platform that was founded in 2018 as a response to the growing “skills gap” due to digitization. Students follow the online courses at their own pace from home, and are involved and motivated by the active community and personal guidance. The average age of the students is 35 years. The courses range from a few weeks to 6 months, with an average tuition fee of €2,500. The scale-up is accredited by the NRTO and CRKBO and is proud of its accessibility to a large audience: although courses are at higher professional education level, no prior education is required. Winc Academy currently employs 35 people. The founding team consists of Marijn Pijnenborg (founder of Funda and auto.nl), Carla Snepvangers (Endemol, SAIL Amsterdam) and Joran van Aart (Study Portals).
About Rubio Impact Ventures
Rubio Impact Ventures is a leading impact investment fund with 150 million euros in assets under management. Rubio invests in young, fast-growing companies that have a substantial impact worldwide and achieve it commercially scalable; a future-proof form of entrepreneurship that Rubio calls “the new normal”. Rubio offers entrepreneurs the capital to grow while providing them with the expertise, network and support they are looking for to achieve their plans and accelerate results.
About Dutch Founders Fund
Dutch Founders Fund is a venture capital fund from Amsterdam, founded by a group of successful Dutch entrepreneurs: Laurens Groenendijk (Just Eat, Treatwell, Miinto, Hiber), Patrick Kerssemakers (fonQ), Bas Beerens (WeTransfer), Hidde Hoogcarspel (Spacebuzz) and Remco van Zanten (ex Booking, Zalando, BCG). The fund specializes in marketplaces and companies with strong network effects. Since its launch in 2018, the fund has successfully invested in 16 companies. This includes: YourCampus, Shypple, Vintage Cash Cow, Lumaly, Blanco, Nostics, Reveall, Veylinx, Wunderkind, Voicebooking, Fleks, Minimum, Caya, Tracedock (formerly CM.com), Winc Academy, and Buildstream. The total fund has almost €100 million in assets under management.
