A Queensland workplace edtech has landed $61 million from Seek, Salesforce and Microsoft

Remote work in the era of Microsoft Teams and Zoom meetings has been a boom for business software companies and a Brisbane remote learning startup is riding the wave with the backing of some of the world’s biggest companies.

GO1 has raised $61 million (US$40m) in Series C in around led by SEEK and US VC firm Madrona Venture Group with Salesforce Ventures come aboard as w new investor alongside existing backers including Microsoft’s venture fund M12, and Our Innovation Fund. The figure doubles its previous raises to more than $80m in total. S. Somasegar, managing director of Madrona Venture Group, will join the company’s board.

The online workplace education and training platform already has more than 1.5 million users and has seen usage triple as remote work kicked in in response to covid-19.

CEO Andrew Barnes said the company had doubled the number of organisations using the platform in Australia over the past year and the use of online education for training was now undergoing a structural shift

The funding will go to increasing North American expansion and expanding the content provider partner network.

GO1 recently integrated with Microsoft Teams and Nagraj Kashyap, Microsoft Corporate VP and Global Head of M12 said that with 75 million people now using teams, their investment will help Team users continue to learn.

“GO1 has been critical for business continuity as organisations navigate the remote realities of COVID-19,” he said.

Salesforce Ventures head of Australia Rob Keith said that while the majority of corporate learning is still done in person, the digital imperative brought on by coronavirus will see an acceleration in the shift to online learning tools.

“We believe GO1 fits well into the Trailhead ecosystem and our vision of creating the life-long learner journey,” he said.

GO1 has made its COVID-19 related learning resources are available for free as part of its response to the crisis.