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Credly operates a digital credentialing platform, enabling organizations to issue, manage, and verify digital badges for skills and achievements. The platform provides solutions for credential issuance, workforce insights, and strategic planning. Its core technology facilitates a connected digital network, offering a unified and verifiable understanding of individual competencies.
Jonathan Finkelstein founded Credly in 2012. His insight addressed the need for a standardized, verifiable method to recognize and communicate individual skills digitally. This aimed to provide dynamic competency demonstration, moving beyond traditional credentials for a modern workforce.
Credly serves learning providers, employers, higher education, and professional associations, also supporting individual career growth. Its vision is to accelerate organizations in the skills-based economy by helping them understand, retain, and enhance human capital. This seeks to bridge skill gaps and establish a universally recognized framework for verified skills.
Credly has raised $23.6M across 4 funding rounds.
Credly has raised $23.6M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Credly is a New York City-based technology company that provides a SaaS platform for organizations to create, issue, and manage digital badges—also known as open badges or ebadges—that verify skills and achievements.[1][3][4] It serves enterprises, educational institutions, and training providers like IBM, Microsoft, AWS, Johnson Controls, Google Cloud, and CompTIA, enabling them to recognize employee, learner, or partner competencies in a secure, shareable format that integrates with resumes, social media, and portfolios.[1][2][3][5][6] The platform solves the problem of traditional credentials being static and siloed by offering data-rich, portable digital credentials that follow individuals across jobs, fostering better human capital decisions, equitable workforces, and career mobility; over 2,000 organizations have issued more than 50 million credentials to 25 million users.[1][2] Acquired by Pearson in a $200 million deal in January 2022 (after holding a 20% stake and partnering via the 2018 Acclaim acquisition), Credly now operates within Pearson's Workforce Skills division, combining with AI analytics from Faethm for end-to-end workforce development; it reported 47% revenue growth to $13.3 million in 2021 and continues under its brand with its executive team intact.[1][2][3]
Credly was founded in 2012 by CEO Jonathan Finkelstein in New York City to empower individuals by connecting verified skills to opportunities, catalyzing the digital credentials market.[1][2][3][4] Finkelstein, drawing from expertise in learning technologies, launched the company's first Open Badge in 2013 and secured early investments like from Lumina Foundation in 2016.[1] Pivotal moments included the 2018 acquisition of Pearson's Acclaim badging business, which gave Pearson a minority stake and board seat while expanding Credly's suite for skill recognition and talent management.[1][3] This partnership culminated in Pearson's full $200 million acquisition in January 2022, accelerating Credly's global scale amid rising demand for skills-based hiring; early traction came from adopters like IBM and AWS, building to its status as North America's fastest-growing companies.[1][2][6]
Credly rides the skills economy trend, where employers prioritize verified competencies over degrees amid talent shortages, remote work, and AI-driven job shifts, aligning with global movements for skills-based hiring and lifelong learning.[1][2][4] Timing is ideal post-2022 acquisition, as Pearson's scale amplifies Credly's reach into workforce analytics and content, countering market forces like skills gaps (e.g., Colorado's unemployment initiatives) and equitable access.[2][6] It influences the ecosystem by standardizing digital credentials via Open Badges, powering programs from Google Cloud to Harper College, and enabling data-driven decisions that close gaps in tech, HR, and sustainability sectors like Johnson Controls' smart buildings.[5][6][7]
Credly's integration with Pearson positions it to dominate the growing digital credentialing market, potentially expanding AI-enhanced personalization and global enterprise adoption amid rising demand for portable skills verification. Trends like workforce upskilling, badge interoperability, and skills ontologies will shape its path, evolving its influence from badging leader to full talent ecosystem enabler. As skills define careers, Credly remains the go-to platform verifying what people "actually know and can do," scaling impact for millions.[2][7]
Credly has raised $23.6M in total across 4 funding rounds.
Credly's investors include New Markets Venture Partners, Lion Brothers Company, Lumina Foundation, Pearson Ventures, Strada Education Network, University Ventures, Zoma Capital, City & Guilds Group, Ryan Craig, John Yates, Susan Ganz, Kiko Suarez.
Credly has raised $23.6M across 4 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $11.0M Series A in April 2019.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 1, 2019 | $11.0M Series A | New Markets Venture Partners, Lion Brothers Company, Lumina Foundation, Pearson Ventures, Strada Education Network, University Ventures, Zoma Capital | |
| Sep 13, 2017 | $4.6M Other Equity | City & Guilds Group, Lion Brothers Company, Lumina Foundation, New Markets Venture Partners, University Ventures | |
| Sep 1, 2017 | $5.0M Seed | New Markets Venture Partners | |
| Mar 1, 2016 | $3.0M Seed | New Markets Venture Partners, Ryan Craig | John Yates, Susan Ganz, Kiko Suarez |