retrain.ai Closes $9M in Series A Funding
New York: retrain.ai, the Talent Intelligence Platform that uses AI and Machine Learning to redefine the future of work by helping organizations upskill, retrain and place professionals in new roles faster and more accurately than ever before, announces today the close of a $9M Series A led by international fund Square Peg, following their $4M Seed Round in September 2020, led by Hetz Ventures, with TechAviv and .406 Ventures participating. Alongside the funding, the company announces a notable first deal with the Israeli Department of Labor which will be using retrain.ai to help flatten the national unemployment curve.
retrain.ai, at the forefront of HRTech innovation, is built to address the unprecedented shifts in the global workforce. Data suggests that one-third of current occupations will be displaced in a decade, mainly due to automation; occupations and skill requirements are changing faster than ever, the skills gap is widening, and organizations and people are scrambling to keep up. retrain.ai’s Talent Intelligence Platform enables both employers and employees to navigate change, through the entire talent life cycle, from hiring to retiring.
retrain.ai is led by an all-star team, founded by three experienced entrepreneurs and technologists who have spent the last two decades building large-scale software systems. retrain.ai’s CEO is Dr. Shay David, the serial entrepreneur known for previously co-founding the video enterprise leader Kaltura; Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf serves as the company’s COO, after previously co-founding an HR startup, leading it to a successful acquisition; and Avi Simon, retrain.ai’s CTO, served as Chief Data Officer of the Israel Defense Forces and the CIO and CTO of the Israeli military intelligence corps, where he founded and commanded a number of R&D units specializing in utilizing Big Data for an intelligent personnel placement.
“After successfully building Kaltura, a category-leading video platform company, I knew my next company should address one of the biggest challenges we are facing today, the skills gap,” said co-founder and CEO, Dr. Shay David. “What was once the regular tide of change in the workforce has evolved into a tsunami, especially pronounced by COVID-19 and its huge impact on the labor market. This has been a wake-up call. Unemployment and underemployment is going to affect a billion people globally in the next few decades. Our vision is to help 10 million workers get the right jobs by 2025 and help organizations navigate efficiently through the wave of change.”
In addition to securing substantial funding, retrain.ai is already working with a number of S&P 500 companies as well as a number of governments. The first to sign with retrain.ai is Israel, which has proven its global leadership in executing its COVID-19 vaccination rollout via its renowned digital healthcare system and is now committed to tackling the growing employment crisis.
