Over the last decade, Florida Funders has made many bets on promising early-stage startups across the Southeast region. The first closed its $60M Fund 2 last year and has already deployed capital into 41 companies.
This week, the team announced its latest investment into the region with a $1.3 million seed round check to Birmingham-based QuantHub. The data skills training platform uses micro-learning to deliver a tailored educational experience to individuals, corporations and educational institutions.
Co-founder and CEO Joshua Jones got the idea for QuantHub during his time in the consulting world.
“We saw repeatedly that organizations’ largest challenges to leveraging data and AI was actually the data fluency of employees across the organization – not just those on specialized data teams. So we launched a tool to help train every employee across the enterprise with the data skills they need to help navigate digital transformation,” he told Hypepotamus.
Saxon Baum, Partner at Florida Funders, told Hypepotamus that the firm got to know QuantHub Society of International Business fellows trip. “We knew immediately Josh had something special and we were intrigued based on his background and experience,” Baum added.
This is Florida Funders’ first investment into the Birmingham area, though Baum said the team is starting to spend more time there as they search for growing startups.
Building QuantHub
The team has been busy building over the last several months, particularly after pitching at Venture Atlanta last October.
Since then the team took home a 3rd place finish at the National Artificial Intelligence Tech Sprint (hosted by the US Department of Veterans Affairs), meaning QuantHub now qualifies to be a “a sole source vendor to the VA and other agencies,” added Jones. “This has also done a tremendous job of raising our profile nationally, and we’re thrilled with the influx of interest that has generated.”
That national recognition comes down to the fact that businesses, regardless of industry, are inundated with more data each and every day. That makes upskilling employees even more crucial to a company’s growth potential.
QuantHub’s platform includes lessons on 500 different data skills. Beyond just offering exams, the platform helps forecast when an individual is likely to forget a skill in order to help ensure long-term retention and recall.
Early clients of the company include Blue Cross Blue Shield, HP, and Voya Financial.
QuantHub is also building out a curriculum for the hot topics in data today, including generative AI.
“We’re in the process of launching a course called “Chat GPT For Power Users” – you can imagine that’s getting a lot of attention right now. Others include education on how to use dashboards, identifying the “art of the possible” with data tools, and data storytelling,” added Jones.
Following the fundraise, QuantHub is going on a bit of a hiring spree. The Birmingham-based team is looking to recruit five new employees, including a VP of Curriculum, Marketing Manager, and Ruby on Rails developers.
