Apolitical raises Series A to grow in North America and expand climate training

Apolitical makes governments more effective by upskilling the largest workforce in the world, of more than 200 million public servants.

If governments did what was already working elsewhere it would save $3.5 trillion each year globally. Apolitical’s social learning platform enables public servants to learn from their peers, and with their peers, unlocking vast savings and increased productivity in government.

Public servants spend about 40% of GDP and indirectly impact the whole economy. Because of the scale of government, public servants in mid-level roles often make decisions that can cost millions of dollars and affect millions of lives. The global online learning market for the public sector is rapidly growing and already worth $26 billion, yet nearly half of public servants say they have no or unhelpful learning resources.

“We started Apolitical because we thought it was crazy that on their smartphones, public servants could find the best restaurant on the other side of the world, or easily learn how to code with an online course, “ said Robyn Scott, co-founder and CEO. “But they couldn't find out the best approach to a new policy which might cost millions of dollars or impact millions of people's lives. And they couldn't do a quick and practical course on how to make their government more digital.”

The £5 million Series A was co-led by early stage venture firms Systemiq Capital and Perivoli Innovations. One of Apolitical’s focus areas is upskilling the public sector on climate. Trillions of dollars are about to be spent on funding the green transition and public servants are not yet equipped with the knowledge skills they need to ensure this money isn’t wasted. Both lead investors believe that helping upskill governments on climate action is fundamental to cracking the climate challenge. “_The transition to a net positive economy will never happen unless governments move away from traditional policy-making, often preserving the status quo. Apolitical has the potential to accelerate the transition by offering access to different thinking, successful case examples, and peer exchange on innovative solutions,” _said Irena Spazzapan, managing partner at Systemiq Capital.

Other Series A investors include Diego Piacentini, who was Senior Vice President of International Consumer Business at Amazon for 16 years and later led digital transformation for the Italian government. _“Apolitical’s goal to support in a scalable manner the delivery of efficient, high quality training and upskilling to those who actually need to do the work is critically important,” _said Piacentini.

Tiago Carneiro Peixoto, Public Sector Specialist at the World Bank’s Governance Global Practice said: “Apolitical is for civil servants what Github is for developers. To be effective in government you need to be continuously learning from what’s working elsewhere. Practical insights from your peers on how they’ve made things happen on the ground are invaluable. Apolitical makes this possible.”

Apolitical will use the Series A funds to expand in new markets such as North America and Brazil and build its portfolio of courses on 21st-century government, developed in partnership with academic and research institutions. _“Apolitical are experts in online pedagogy for public servants. With them, we turned our classroom-based "Introduction to Sustainable Finance" course into a scalable online experience which 95% of public servants would recommend to a colleague," _said Dr Ben Caldecott, founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group at the University of Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

Apolitical has intentionally grown organically, building foundational partnerships with governments in its early markets. Now on track for profitability next year, and with a fast-growing community, the company decided to raise institutional capital to accelerate its growth. We are constantly hiring. We will occasionally be fundraising. And we are always looking to form collaborations to help build 21st-century governments that work for people and the planet.

Header Photo of Apolitical Leadership Team

(Photo Credit: Lauren Benson-Armer)