Strigo, a platform that helps companies deliver software training to their clients remotely, has raised $8 million in a series A round of funding led by Greycroft and Velvet Sea Ventures. The Israeli startup also said that it had tripled its customer base throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
The global pandemic has been a boon for online communication tools such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, as companies have been forced to embrace remote working. Moreover, these platforms found a whole new lease of life in situations for which they were never even intended, such as dating and virtual social gatherings with friends. But a “one-size fits all” ethos is often not a good thing in the technology realm, as certain situations require dedicated tools for the job in hand.
Founded in 2017, Tel Aviv-based Strigo has built a platform that enables software companies to onboard and train customers in how to use the software. Traditionally, this is something that companies often did in person — they would send out specialists to give the training, which is a time-consuming, resource-intensive endeavor. And in a socially-distanced world, this approach is either impossible or fraught with friction. And that is what Strigo effectively tries to solve, with a unified platform that allows trainers to communicate, share content, and collaborate in real scenarios involving the software.
“It’s really about providing hands-on training in which customers learn by practicing within actual product environments,” Nevo Peretz, CEO and cofounder of Strigo, told VentureBeat.
Above: Strigo training cloud: One-on-one with attendee panel and dashboard
Strigo can also be used for in-person software training sessions at customers’ own premises, as the platform is designed to work without relying on local IT teams to facilitate sessions or book dedicated lab spaces. Employees can just turn up to a standard meeting room armed with their laptops, with Strigo enabling full access to the software from the browser — no installations required.
Fluid
Prior to now, Strigo had raised $2.5 million, and with another $8 million in the bank it’s well-positioned to grab a bigger piece of the $368 billion corporate training market, and add to its existing roster of clients which include VMWare, Sage, and Docker.
The company is also planning a bunch of new tools over the next year, including “hands-on group collaboration,” which will enable learners to complete assignments as part of a team exercise.
“This will help greatly enrich the training experience as it allows students to learn from each other through collaborative hands-on sessions, helping drive better knowledge retention while helping trainers manage their sessions more efficiently,” Peretz said.
While it is possible to run all manner of training sessions through combining tools and sharing screens, this will usually require having to switch between multiple applications — such as video tools, remote support, and virtual lab platforms — during a class. This doesn’t really replicate the fluidity of a real classroom environment, and that essentially is Strigo’s core raison d’être.
“The patching together of these tools creates a poor training experience, inability to see the training operation as a whole and identify problems, and it is also difficult to scale,” Peretz added. “With Strigo, students who are working on a lab exercise can call for assistance and trainers can seamlessly enter the student’s lab, open a one-on-one communication channel, and work together to address the question or issue. This experience mirrors a real classroom where a trainer can come to a student, look over their shoulder and work with them.”