Edison Partners, the growth equity investment firm, has led a USD4 million growth round in Northpass, a New Jersey-based enterprise learning solution for driving business performance.
The capital will be used to accelerate Northpass’ go-to-market execution and product innovation to transform the USD5 billion learning management system (LMS) category.
Northpass experienced significant momentum in 2018 as it grew its customer base to more than 200 logos including notable disruptor brands such as Airbnb, Lyft, Uber, Shopify and Square. Northpass achieved 100 percent revenue growth for the year and anticipates the same 2x growth trajectory for 2019.
The company’s platform is currently used by large and mid-sized SaaS businesses, as well as brands in the “on-demand” sector, where flexible and distributed learning programs and analytics are in high demand. In contrast to the legacy LMS industry, Northpass provides a nimble, modern solution, focused around content-building, content-delivery, and a mobile-first learning experience.
“Enterprise learning solutions are a large and fast-growing market. One of the key advantages Northpass has established is its unique degree of understanding of the market’s new needs and the development of user-centric designed programs, experiences and metrics. The Northpass team’s approach has quickly converted into solid revenue growth and bookings momentum,” says Tom Vander Schaaff, General Partner, Edison Partners, who led the investment and joins the company’s board of directors. “We are excited to be working with Steve and team to accelerate the company’s market expansion, further differentiate its platform, and help Northpass to continue to scale into new verticals.”
Northpass is building a new LMS category that lets companies create and deliver content via browser or mobile to train their employees, customers and partners on their brand, product and best practices. Unlike larger LMS providers with their quantity-over-quality approach, Northpass offers online programs design-optimised for learners and customised for customers’ needs beyond compliance, resulting in better engagement, active participation, knowledge transfer and retention.
“We purpose-built our platform to serve a new generation of corporate customers looking for a modern and flexible learning solution that delivers the necessary insights to achieve their business goals,” said Stephen Cornwell, Founder and CEO, Northpass. “This partnership with Edison provides us with both the capital and operating expertise to grow our team, accelerate our up-market growth and continue to strengthen our competitive position.”
Edison Partners has financed and guided more than 200 private companies, a third of which have been in the enterprise solutions space. Northpass is the firm’s 47th investment in its home state of New Jersey. In addition to Northpass, the firm’s current investments in New Jersey include Scivantage, Trialscope and Zelis Healthcare.
