Enterprise elearning platform OpenSesame raises $9 million, says it will expand into VR training

On-demand elearning startup OpenSesame has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Altos Ventures, with participation from existing investor Partech Ventures.

Founded in 2002, OpenSesame offers more than 20,000 courses aimed at enterprises, covering everything from accounting and customer service to I.T. certification and conflict resolution.

The company had raised around $10 million prior to this and says that its latest funding will be used to expedite its sales and marketing initiatives, while also allowing it to expand into new training technologies, including virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR).

As OpenSesame plans to branch out into high-tech training mediums, fellow online learning startup Udacity only yesterday announced a new VR Developer nanodegree in partnership with Google, HTC, and others. So it’s clear that there is a growing push to not only harness the burgeoning VR technology but to also ensure that there is enough coding talent behind the scenes.

The corporate elearning market was said to be worth $12 billion in the U.S. alone in 2015 and could hit $31 billion globally by 2020. And this could explain why online education company Coursera revealed less than a month ago that it was branching out to target businesses, specifically.

“OpenSesame has experienced tremendous growth in the last two years, because leading organizations understand that simple and effective online training gives them a competitive advantage,” said OpenSesame CEO Don Spear.