Knoma secures £21m in Series A funding led by Global Founders Capital to expand educational finance
Global Founders Capital led the Series A round to support the growth of the educational finance platform.
Knoma provides zero interest and zero fee financing options for individuals seeking to complete digital and technology skills courses. The platform integrates directly with partner schools to enable learners to spread the cost of their education over time.
Knoma has secured £21m in Series A funding to expand its educational finance platform and tackle the growing digital skills gap. The investment round was led by Global Founders Capital, with participation from Rocket Internet, Fasanara Capital, and Seedrs, alongside angel investor Christian Faes. The capital comprises a mixture of equity and debt funding.
Founded by Brett Shanley, the company provides zero interest and zero fee loans for lifelong learners pursuing tech courses, utilizing Open Banking technology for rapid credit assessments. The platform aims to remove upfront payment barriers and provide students with flexible repayment options while charging partner merchants rather than learners.
From the founder
"The future of work in the digital economy means continuous learning from 16-65 years old, or as the American’s say K to grey. We are looking to democratise funding of tech and coding courses by removing barriers for upfront payment or having to take out high interest loans. We don’t believe in charging our users and have instead opted to build a business model that charges a merchant fee to our partners and is free to the enduser (the student)."
Brett Shanley
Founder and CEO at Knoma
Investor perspective
"We believe education should be accessed in a short but frequent manner with a focus on gaining technical and data-driven skills. The digital skills crisis is driven by two factors; first, technological change is accelerating at an ever-faster rate; second, technology and digital skills are critical to an ever-increasing proportion of jobs. Although education has always lagged behind technology, this problem is now more acute than ever, particularly in a post-Covid world."
Christopher Priebe
Partner, Global Founders Capital
Use of funds
- 01Expand into international markets
Investors
Christopher Priebe
Global Founders Capital
Rocket Internet
Francesco Filia
Fasanara Capital
Seedrs
Christian Faes