professional-training
(8)
OpenClassrooms
OpenClassrooms is a Paris-based online education company that turns coursework into jobs. Founded in 2013 by Pierre Dubuc and Mathieu Nebra out of the tutorial site Le Site du Zéro, it offers hundreds of free courses plus accredited, mentor-supported degree and apprenticeship programs in fields like data, AI, cybersecurity and web development. A certified B Corp with roughly 2.5 million monthly users, the company pairs project-based online learning with real-world work placements and a network of thousands of expert mentors, positioning itself as an education-to-employment platform rather than a video-course catalog.
Sayge
Sayge is a New York-based coaching platform that gives everyday employees - not just executives - ongoing 1:1 access to vetted, ICF-certified professional coaches. Founded in 2017 by Jamie Bryan and Katie Stricker under the banner 'Coaching for the Rest of Us,' the company pairs employees with a personal coach, runs biweekly virtual sessions, and hands employers dashboards that track progress and impact. After raising $1.75M in seed funding, Sayge was acquired by employee-benefits platform Bennie in October 2023 and now operates as part of Bennie's benefits suite.
Thought Industries
Thought Industries builds an AI-first customer learning and intelligence platform that helps B2B and B2C companies train and educate the people outside their walls - customers, partners, and members. Founded in Boston in 2013, it turned the idea that 'external learning' deserved its own category into a business serving more than 21 million active learners, and now positions every lesson as a signal that drives adoption, retention, and revenue.
Tom Griffiths
Tom Griffiths is the CEO and co-founder of Hone, a live, cohort-based talent development platform that trains managers at companies like Indeed, ConocoPhillips, and Aramark. Before Hone, he co-founded daily fantasy sports company FanDuel and ran product for a decade as Chief Product Officer, helping pioneer a new category and grow it into a billion-dollar business with millions of users. A Cambridge computer scientist who left a machine learning PhD in Edinburgh to chase a startup, he now builds technology that teaches human skills.
Braven
Braven is a national nonprofit career accelerator that partners with large public universities and employers to help first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented college students land strong first jobs. Through a semester-long, cohort-based course followed by post-graduation support, Braven equips Fellows with the skills, confidence, experiences, and professional networks they need to translate a college degree into economic mobility. Founded in 2013 by former Teach For America executive Aimée Eubanks Davis, Braven has reached more than 15,000 Fellows across cities including Chicago, Newark, New York, Atlanta, the Bay Area, and beyond.
Breathe For Change
Breathe For Change is a San Francisco-based education company transforming schools from the inside out by training educators in mindfulness, social-emotional learning, and yoga. Founded in 2015 by Dr. Ilana Nankin and Michael Fenchel, the company has certified over 20,000 educators across all 50 states, creating ripple effects that reach more than 20 million students. Through a suite of programs including a fully accredited Master's degree (with William Jewell College), a Human Intelligence Certification, and the original 200-hour wellness and yoga teacher training, Breathe For Change makes the case that teacher well-being isn't a perk - it's the foundation of student success.
Mursion
Mursion is a San Francisco-based AI-powered upskilling platform that uses live human 'simulation specialists' to puppet AI avatars in immersive role-play scenarios. Founded in 2015 by Mark Atkinson and Arjun Nagendran, the company trains leaders, salespeople, teachers and healthcare workers in the high-stakes conversations that are hardest to rehearse in real life.
Henrique Andrade
Henrique Andrade is the CEO and co-founder of CEFIS, Brazil's largest corporate education platform for accounting, tax, and labor law professionals. Founded in Goiânia in 2013 and launched in 2014, CEFIS has scaled to over 400,000 students and 5,000+ courses, reaching its first million reais in revenue within 14 months. Under Andrade's leadership, CEFIS expanded internationally to Redwood City, California in 2018, inspired by Silicon Valley's best practices in e-learning and talent management. Based in San Francisco, Andrade blends a meritocracy-driven culture - drawing inspiration from Goldman Sachs and the 3G Group - with a Google-style workplace designed to attract top engineering talent.