Lepaya further expands global reach with the acquisition of Speak First

AMSTERDAM 23 November – Lepaya, a rapidly expanding edTech scaleup, acquires Speak First, a UK-based company that offers communication and leadership training for managers and leaders. With this acquisition, Lepaya’s learning platform adds further scalability to maximize the learning impact with Speak First’s offering for current and prospective clients.

Lepaya, backed by investors like Target Global, Mediahuis Ventures, and Tablomondo, spotted the impact Speak First made on its global clients over the last 30+ years and decided to acquire the company to accelerate innovation in a more traditional L&D space. On the back of combined scale, Lepaya further intensifies its investments in cutting-edge companies and technologies such as VR and AI-coaching to further consolidate the L&D industry.

As a global L&D brand, Lepaya enables enterprises to upskill their workforce by providing Power Skills training enhanced by technology and a scalable learning methodology.  With a mix of online and offline learning techniques, Lepaya ensures that employees acquire skills that make them more effective and resilient.

The acquisition of Speak First showcases immense scalability and potential for talent transformation in the corporate world, helping companies build deep cultures of learning and productivity. The focus of both Lepaya and Speak First is on corporations with a global reach, like Microsoft, L’Oreal, KPMG, ING, Dell, or PwC.

Adding scalability and disrupting traditional training globally

Lepaya believes that to be future-proof and win in the market, enterprise companies need scalable training methodologies which address the unique set of challenges that these enterprises face. By working on Power Skills, employees can develop their careers optimally and add more added value to an organization. The new acquisition allows this development to take place at any stage of a career, from starters to more senior managers.

René Janssen, CEO, and co-founder of Lepaya: “We are growing fast, and see both organic and inorganic growth as opportunities to transform the way enterprise companies build learning cultures. I am excited to add Speak First to our portfolio, and continue to push the envelope in relevance, quality, context, and technology.  With Speak First on board, we not only extend our reach but take the next step in challenging traditional L&D players.”

Amanda Vickers, CEO of Speak First: “We have over 30 years of experience educating and training senior managers. But we also want to continue to develop ourselves as a company. By joining a high-growth, ambitious player like Lepaya, we can become truly transformational and empower our customers with modern learning technology and methodologies.”

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About Lepaya

Lepaya is a Learning and Development Provider that focuses on increasing talent retention and productivity through a blend of online, offline and virtual reality training experiences.

Founded by René Janssen and Peter Kuperus in 2018 with the perspective that the right training, at the right time, focused on the right skill, makes organizations productive and enables overall business growth.

As a challenger in a crowded training market, Lepaya responds to the needs of Europe’s fastest growing tech companies, such as Mollie, Takeaway, and Picnic, as well as builds custom training modules for giants like Loreal, KPMG, ING and PwC. Lepaya enables thousands of professionals by combining hard skills with soft skills, offered together as Power Skills.

In 2020, Lepaya acquired Smartenup, a training company that supports professionals to work better, faster, and smarter with data. And in September 2022 acquired a Berlin-based company vCoach to further innovate on the new ways corporates and their talent spot learning opportunities. Lepaya is backed by Target Global, Mediahuis Ventures, and Tablomonto. The company has raised USD 47 million to date.

About Speak First

Speak First has been designing and delivering high-impact, high-quality learning solutions for over 30 years, supporting people who are technically brilliant at their jobs to enhance their soft skills and become even more successful.

As a global consultancy, specialising in instructor-led training, Speak First create bespoke sustainable and transferable programmes to improve the way people lead and manage others, communicate and assert themselves. By combining an innovative and dynamic approach with the latest models, theory and practical exercises, they design the perfect learning solutions for every organisation.

Their global network has over 300 trainers over 55 countries, and are able to deliver training in over 45 languages. By localising training content and examples, Speak First promises global consistency with a local difference.

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Media contacts:

Milda Skladaityte | Global Head of Brand, Lepaya

milda.skladaityte@lepaya.com

+491736328843

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