AI coaching platform Quench.ai, founded by Onfido co-founder Husayn Kassai, has raised $5m (£3.9m) in pre-seed capital.
The startup, founded in 2021, has created AI that acts like a coach to recommend suitable videos for a user to learn new skills. The company says this will save time by avoiding problems such as “choice paralysis” and “rabbit holes”.
The platform is targeted at “modern learners”, with a focus on upskilling. The technology is still in beta mode.
Quench.ai’s pre-seed round attracted funding from Firstminute Capital, Tuesday VC (previously CrunchFund), BY Venture Partners, Ada Ventures, Plug and Play Ventures, Notion Capital, IFG, Antler, Ventures Together, Northzone scout and more than 50 founders.
“Building my first startup straight out of university and scaling it to a team of over 500, I knew we had to become an effective learning organisation,” said Husayn Kassai, CEO and founder of Quench.ai.
“Yet I couldn’t find a simple way to equip our teams with the learning opportunities they needed to continuously grow their skills, learn more, and move faster.”
From its London office, Quench.ai is planning to grow its headcount from 16 with the pre-seed raise in areas such as development, customer sales and support.
Kassai added: “Learning and skill development have changed, but video hasn’t caught up yet. Learning is moving from a ‘just-in-case’ to a ‘just-in-time’ model – self-directed and increasingly video-first.”
Eamon Jubbawy, also a co-founder of digital ID company Onfido, has gone on to create the carbon removal platform Isometric, which this month received £19m in investment.