Amsterdam, 12 May 2022 – In its latest investment round, Amsterdam-based AG5 raised €1.2 million from tech investor Peak. AG5 will use the funds to further develop its skills management software and market the platform globally. Today, international organisations such as Jacobs Douwe Egberts, KLM and Toyota Boshoku are using AG5 to map the skills of employees to schedule them correctly, train them in time and ensure international regulation compliance.
Organisations from all over the world in search of help with similar challenges find their way to AG5. Those organisations, referred at times by consultancy agencies such as Accenture, all struggle with creating an overview of the competencies of their employees and mapping the subsequent skills gap. The pace at which new technologies are introduced demands continuous employee training and, in addition, regulation compliance is executed through strict audits.
‘What we see is that organisations struggle to create transparent and measurable insight into which employees are qualified to operate certain machinery or work on a given production line,’ says Rick van Echtelt, Founder at AG5. ‘Technological developments widen the skills gap and make qualification more complex. This trend is confirmed by the €85 billion that the European Union invested in the development of digital competencies on the work floor in the form of the European Skills Agenda.’
Tackle skills gap globally
AG5, which has offices in Amsterdam and Berlin, has been focusing on skills management since 2019. The company’s skills management platform, which is available in 15 languages, was built by the 21-person strong AG5 team. The platform offers technical integration with dozens of parties in the fields of HRM, e-learning, planning systems and training management systems, such as SAP (as a certified partner), Moodle and Cornerstone. AG5’s client list includes international organisations such as Jacobs Douwe Egberts, KLM, Olympus, Tata Steel and Toyota Boshoku.
The €1.2 million investment by Peak enables AG5 to accelerate its international expansion and offer intercontinental support to its multinational clients. Over the next two years, the company aspires to double the size of its team and triple the number of clients it serves. To realise the envisioned growth, AG5 is recruiting new staff for key positions, such as Head of Sales.
Peak co-founder Johan van Mil says: ‘The skills gap is widening worldwide as more and more organisations have to meet stricter certification, compliance and sustainability (ESG) requirements. AG5 offers a scalable SaaS solution that provides insight into the skills gap per team, location or region. Thanks to AG5, employees can be scheduled based on their qualifications and receive the right training in time, besides enabling organisations to comply with international regulations for their relevant sector. We look forward to supporting the AG5 team in their ambitious growth path.’
AG5 founder Rick van Echtelt says: ‘We have found our growth partner in Peak. Their deep market analysis showed us that the need for our platform worldwide is even greater than we had anticipated. The knowledge and expertise of growing SaaS platforms internationally, together with the people and company culture, is the perfect match for us to go and meet that need.’
For more information go to ag5.com.