Edtech B2B Startup ProSpark Announces Seed Funding Led by AC Ventures

ProSpark, a learning management system (LMS) platform for the B2B segment, today (5/7) announced to secure follow-on funding for its seed round. Led by AC Ventures, participated also other investors, including 500 Startups, Azure Ventures, Prasetia Dwidharma (follow-on), Assembly Ventures, and several angel investors.  Some investors were involved in their pre-seed last April 2020. The value is undisclosed.

ProSpark's LMS service combines distributed content marketplace features with a gamification system that encourages user engagement in an organization. Through this platform companies can train and improve the workforce's skills online. This funding is also considered in the right momentum, changes in behavior due to the pandemic are driving growth and demand for edtech services for businesses.

Specifically, fresh funds will be used to expand markets and improve technology infrastructure. Currently, ProSpark is struggling to immediately initiate regional expansion in Southeast Asia. Based in Singapore, ProSpark services are available to Indonesian users; and now it started to penetrate the Philippines market.

"Companies are constantly trying to find their best approach amidst the pandemic. Now that e-learning is growing, offline learning is becoming relatively more expensive, inefficient and less scalable. The ProSpark service comes with personalized and scalable solutions, through adaptive learning with results that can be monitored," ProSpark's Co-Founder & CEO, Alfa Bumhira said.

He continued, "This funding will help us expand our end-to-end user experience by providing a wider range of content solutions, better competency on gap mapping capabilities, and a focus on user learning outcomes [..] This is the right product, at the right time, in the right area."

The corporate education sector is now developing as the rise of self-development activities trend  through the application. Actually, the B2B edtech service has been implemented by several other players in Indonesia. From HarukaEDU with its product CorporateEdu, then the SaaS Mekari platform which also released Mekari University last year, also Codemi that has received capital support from a venture unit of Bukalapak's former founder. Each platform has offered a different approach.

"The offline workforce is at risk of falling behind in the new digital economy and this problem has been accelerated by the global pandemic. Training the workforce with the skills they need to survive and thrive is urgently needed [..] We believe ProSpark e-learning solutions can thrive across the Southeast Asian region and tackle these skills upgrading problems in various sectors," 500 Startups' General Partner, Binh Tran said.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian