LOS ANGELES, March 3, 2020 —Today, Talespin, a spatial computing company focused on workforce knowledge transfer and skill alignment, announced it has raised $15 million in Series B funding. The funding round was led by Cornerstone OnDemand®, a provider of cloud-based learning, talent management and talent experience software. Cornerstone also announced an ongoing partnership with Talespin, to deliver Talespin’s extended reality (XR) training solutions to customers. HTC also joined the round as a new investor, with participation from existing investors, including Farmers Insurance Exchange.
Companies face massive reskilling challenges as they seek to transform their workforces to keep pace with rapidly changing technology, evolving workforce expectations, and growing talent gaps. Soft skills like leadership and communication are at a premium in an increasingly digital world, and process-oriented jobs are changing faster than people can train for them using traditional methods. Talespin addresses these challenges by empowering companies to systematically transition their workforces toward a new, skills-based economy with spatial computing. Talespin’s Runway platform accelerates knowledge transfer for soft and hard skills, and offers advanced skills data to enable purpose-driven career decisions for employees, and better talent decisions for organizations.
In addition to leading the Series B funding round, Cornerstone is partnering with Talespin to develop technology and products to up-level HR and L&D practices. Talespin’s VR learning content will be made available to customers through Cornerstone’s product offerings. Talespin’s Runway platform will also be integrated with Cornerstone’s Learning Management System to power XR training deployment and skills matching analytics at scale.
“We share Talespin’s vision that the workforce needs innovative solutions to stay competitive, maximize opportunity and increase employee satisfaction,” said Jason Gold, Vice President of Finance, Corporate Development and Investor Relations at Cornerstone. “We’ve been incredibly impressed with Talespin’s technology, leadership team and vision to transform the workplace through XR. Talespin’s technology is a perfect fit in our suite of products, and we look forward to working together to deliver great solutions for our customers.”
Talespin’s technology is trusted by companies across the insurance, telecommunications, technology, and healthcare industries, primarily in the Fortune 500. One of Talespin’s early customers - Farmers Insurance® - also invested in Talespin.
"Farmers work with Talespin continues to deliver innovative technology to help empower our employees to provide a high level of customer service,” said Scott Lindquist, chief financial officer of Farmers Group, Inc, the attorney-in-fact of Farmers Insurance Exchange. "Their immersive VR and AR platforms have helped us reshape the way we look at training Farmers Insurance® Claims Adjusters and we're excited to continue to support the Talespin team through this next phase of growth and development."
This new funding brings Talespin’s total funding raised to $20 million. The company will use these new financing investments to continue to power its talent development platform, Runway, as well as to expand research and development and to continue growing its VR learning content library.
“Creating better alignment between skills and opportunities is the key to solving the reskilling challenges organizations across the world are facing,” said Kyle Jackson, CEO and Co-Founder of Talespin. “That’s why it’s critical companies find a way to provide accelerated, continuous learning and create better skills data. By doing so, we will open up career pathways for individuals that are better aligned to their natural abilities and learned skills, and enable companies to implement a skills-based approach to talent development, assessment, and placement. Our new funding and partnership with Cornerstone will allow us to expand our product offerings to achieve these goals, and to continue building innovative solutions that redefine what work looks like in the future.”
About Talespin
Talespin is building the spatial computing platform to power talent development and skills alignment for the future of work. Founded in 2015, the company leverages its proprietary XR technology platform Runway to deliver XR-based learning and training applications, mixed reality field tools to support employee job performance, and to advance the collection and alignment of skills data. With offices in Los Angeles and Utrecht, The Netherlands, Talespin envisions a world where peoples’ purpose and talents are matched, enabling career paths that blur the line between our passions and our work.
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