Dutch edtech Lepaya buys vCOACH to spread its tentacles across Europe

Amsterdam’s power skills training provider Lepaya has acquired German digital communications trainer vCoach to further grow in new markets and strengthen its offering. The deal comes on the back of Lepaya’s additional investment of €35 million last year. The startup had acquired crosstown rival Smartenup in 2020.

Founded in 2018, Lepaya has raised a total of $47 million in funding until now. The Dutch edtech uses technology to train employees and develop both their soft and hard skills. A mix of online and offline learning programmes ensures that people learn skills effectively to boost their careers or even retrain by developing new skills. This approach to edtech is growing in popularity. Companies such as KPMG, L'Oréal, Takeaway, Mollie, HelloFresh, Flink and Picnic have now become customers in the Netherlands. In the U.K. and Germany, Lepaya has recently signed up Evonik and BCG and several scale-ups.

The German edtech vCOACH offers AI-powered online coaching where users get real-time feedback on their presentation and communication skills. Post the deal, vCOACH will be an integrated part of the Lepaya offering and will be available to all customers.

Talking about the acquisition, Lepaya founder  René Janssen said: “Our vision is to apply as much technology as possible to develop and train skills in an impactful way. vCOACH fits in perfectly with this. They have developed a very valuable technology that can assess the success factors of effectively conveying a message with a smart AI algorithm.”

Stephanie Mayer, co-founder of vCOACH added: “Our product and technology have received great feedback from customers and users. But to optimally serve large corporate customers with a holistic solution, we have to think even bigger. Lepaya's approach and vision fits in perfectly with ours, while offering more skills and methods. A true one-stop shop for enterprise customers. We are proud that vCOACH is now part of the Lepaya platform, allowing the technology to continue to grow.”