Seed Of The Week: Simbel


Sponsored by Babbel:

Start speaking a new language in just three weeks with Babbel

Whether you’re embarking on a trip soon or have had ambitions of learning a new language for years, odds are you want to start speaking it confidently sooner than later. Turn to Babbel, the top language-learning app that helps users start speaking a new tongue in just three weeks. That’s because Babbel goes far beyond just vocabulary; it’s about preparing to have real-life exchanges with locals through lessons (podcasts, games, articles and live online classes) built by expert language instructors (read: not AI). Take up to 55% off when you start your language learning journey today.


What: Simbel has built a SaaS-enabled educational marketplace for employers to provide training and skills development for employees. The goal is to allow employees to engage in continuous learning to advance their careers while ensuring they have the right skill sets as the business needs evolve. The platform generates performance reviews to benchmark an employee's knowledge, highlight training needs, and measure progress. The platform can be customized to mix internal training material with a broader marketplace of 500 training courses from external experts. Simbel works with HR teams, primarily SMBs in Europe, to deploy the platform and adapt it to the company's specific needs.

Why: Career development may be increasingly essential, but in-house programs often get little engagement from employees who tend to see them as an obligation rather than an opportunity. HR departments at SMBs, in particular, are often stretched thin when it comes to having the resources to develop and manage employee training programs. By creating a marketplace of inspiring experts that is easy to deploy, Simbel believes it can make training more efficient and effective.

The Simbel training marketplace

Seed: €4 million

Who: Co-founders are CEO Loïc Jourdain (formerly head of business operations at French services marketplace Stootie) and Charles Gras (formerly global product marketing director at 360Learning).

Investors: Speedinvest and Brighteye led the round, which also included participation from business angels such as eFounders co-founder Thibaud Elziere, Figures co-founder Virgile Raingeard, Stupeflix co-founder Nicolas Steegmann, and Prestashop co-founder Alexandre Eruimy.

What's Next: Since launching in 2021, the company has co-developed its beta with partners Blablacar and Roland Berger. With the funding announcement this week, the company has now officially launched the first public version of the service for SMBs in Europe. Simbel plans to use the Seed funding to accelerate product development. The company is hiring.