Early stage funding firm Antler Australia not too long ago backed a brand new cohort of startups as a part of its ongoing program to construct nice native tech corporations.

Startup Day by day is sharing the small print of every enterprise within the “Antler Investor Memos” collection, which is designed to offer you a fast,  sharp understanding of the startups and other people concerned, with many searching for comply with up capital following Antler’s preliminary pre-seed funding.

Firm title: Nuggets Academy

Formation date: 2022

Stage of enterprise: Pre-Seed

Founders: Joyce Ong and Ross Lin

Present buyers: Antler

At present elevating: Sure

Description of enterprise

Yearly, finance professionals should undertake dozens of hours of necessary Persevering with Skilled Growth (CPD) and coaching to ​​keep skilled competency and integrity requirements. 

Not solely is that this typically a painful tick-the-box train, however the coaching supplied by conventional trade our bodies is taken into account by many stale and costly, offering inaccessible and dated studying experiences, whereas different comparative studying platforms lack the depth and perception required for such experience subject material.

Nuggets Academy is pioneering change within the trade with a brand new platform that permits finance professionals to share their experience to study collectively and from one another, enabling distinctive dwell studying experiences.

Main this enterprise are Joyce Ong and her co-founder Ross Lin. Joyce is a tax specialist and previously the ATO’s Nationwide Tax Governance Lead. Ross is a tech and product guru and former startup founder.

Previous to Nuggets Academy, Ross based Jayride, for which he raised $15 million in funding and scaled to a workforce of greater than 100 workers. Jayride, is now listed on the ASX. 

Collectively, the pair are on a mission to disrupt the way in which workforce training is approached, empower finance professionals to reach their careers and eradicate ‘loss of life by PowerPoint.’

Antler funding thesis

“Nuggets Academy scores extremely throughout workforce, product and market,” says Jake Booker, Affiliate Associate at Antler Australia. 

“The product is progressive, the workforce has developed a really clear worth proposition and there may be little or no competitors at present out there. Together with that, the worldwide finance CPD market is estimated to be $20+ billion in western English-speaking nations alone with on-line studying rising at a speedy charge of 14.6% each year (CAGR).

“The workforce’s traction to this point by way of income, natural progress and low churn are sturdy early indicators in the direction of constructing an impressive platform-led business. We imagine there’s a big alternative for Nuggets Academy with the flexibility to scale virally.”

Traction/ milestones, to this point

Because it launched in February 2022, Nuggets Academy has attracted greater than 700 paid subscribers and greater than 50 groups. Together with that, its dwell occasions have been attended by greater than 4,000 finance professionals and it has attracted greater than 30 instructors who’re at present instructing on the platform. This has seen its ARR triple to greater than $480,000 previously 12 months alone.

Newest funding

Pre-Seed from Antler.

Use of funds

Antler Australia’s preliminary funding will allow Nuggets Academy to proceed to validate its enterprise mannequin, discover product market match and construct out its MVP. Specifically, the workforce plans to deal with automating CPD capturing and reporting for the accounting trade and standardise operations for operating dwell digital occasions for future scaling.

The founders say

“At Nuggets Academy, we’re by no means happy with the established order,” says Joyce. “If there’s a method to do one thing higher, you may wager that we’re engaged on it. 

“We imagine actual change begins with folks. Whether or not you’re a seasoned practitioner or coach occupied with creating content material, or an skilled skilled on the lookout for a profession with function, our platform permits anybody within the finance trade to show with us, share their experience and alternate information with different finance professionals. This enables us to scale shortly and effectively. 

“Our vision is to be the go-to dwell studying platform for finance professionals. Up to now, we’ve discovered product-market match inside the finance Edtech house; and have clear know-how to scale this because of our sturdy founding workforce.

“Antler has additionally supplied invaluable mentoring and steering on fundraising for our subsequent spherical, in addition to credibility which is essential within the finance occupation. We have now additionally acquired expertise and investor connections by way of the Antler community and group.” 

What’s subsequent?

Antler, a world early-stage VC, is revealing all its newest investments made in bold Australian founders and startups. With over 100 investments in early-stage corporations, Tax Nuggets Academy is one in all its most up-to-date portfolio corporations.