Dutch EdTech specialist Lepaya is acquiring Krauthammer. Through the acquisition, Lepaya aims to improve its business learning and development curriculum offerings.
It is not the company’s first acquisition. In 2020, Lepaya acquired Smartenup, also of Dutch origin. Two years later, German VCoach and British SpeakFirst also followed. Meanwhile, the services of the former VCoach are known as Lepaya AI-Coach.
Founded in 2018, Lepaya’s curricula aim to make retaining business talent easier and promoting productivity. Classes take place on both an online and offline basis and even in virtual reality. Its customer base includes Picnic, Rituals, Takeaway, L’Óreal and ING, among others.
“We are exceptional because our technology proves that employees, after going through our programs, actually apply the skills we teach them in their jobs,” states co-CEO of Lepaya Peter Kuperus. “No other European player can do this on this scale.”
Krauthammer is considerably older than that: the German company was founded in 1971 and has been providing training for managers and sales, among others, ever since. It offers training in more than 20 languages.
Largest in Europe
Since this series of acquisitions, Lepaya says it has become “Europe’s largest corporate EdTech provider for learning and development programs”. It now has more than 400 employees across major cities in Europe as well as in Shanghai, China.
Krauthammer’s expertise should make it easier for Lepaya to meet companies’ needs for senior management training.
“I am very pleased that Krauthammer and Lepaya are joining forces,” said Frans van Kreuningen, CEO of Krauthammer. “By combining Krauthammer’s years of experience and quality with offering it at this scale through Lepaya’s platform and their AI- and VR-powered technology, we can update and transform companies at every level.”
“The acquisition of Krauthammer is a significant step forward for Lepaya. With it, Lepaya becomes the premier platform for the world’s largest organizations to increase productivity and employee retention,” said René Janssen, co-CEO of Lepaya. “In our barely five years of existence, we are already impacting the lives of more than 250,000 employees, a great achievement on the way to our ultimate goal of helping the entire global workforce of 3.3 billion.”
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