Early stage investment into Authess, Inc. USA. Providing the next-generation of competency assessment.
～Measuring the competency of working adults by utilizing machine learning and big data analytics methods～

EduLab, Inc. (Minato-ku Tokyo. President and CEO: Junichi Takamura. Hereafter “EduLab Group”) has carried out a round of early-stage investment into Authess, Inc. (Boston, Massachusetts, USA. CEO: Paul Crockett. Hereinafter referred to as “Authess”), a startup which provides assessment by measuring the competency of working adults (hereinafter referred to as Competency Assessment) utilizing machine learning and big data analytics methods.

Investment Background

In the real world, “the expectation gap” between employees and employers, the difference between the type of employees an organization is looking for and the type of organization that employees find desirable, brings a variety of financial and mental burdens to both parties including training fees and turnover. This gap is thought to originate from the organization’s expectation of employees’ competency (hereinafter referred to as Competency). Each individual is expected to shrink the gap between their competency and that required by their potential employers, thus widening their employment opportunities. On the other hand, each organization strives to reduce the risk of hiring an employee who is a mismatch. From a market point of view, the concept of “readiness range,” which measures whether or not an applicant that an organization is recruiting can fit in with other employees and be able to produce good results in the actual business environment, is rapidly growing and represents a promising segment for Edtech players.

The competency-based assessment that Authess provides can measure skills and knowledge of a person informed by the actual business environment (e.g., business, finance, technology, insurance, medicine, and nursing). Specifically, Authess offers insight into knowledge, skill, abilities, cognitive engagement, and performance using machine learning and big data analytics methods.

The EduLab Group decided to carry out a round of early-stage investment into Authess, focusing on their ability to measure the competency of people, which was considered difficult, to a high degree of accuracy using high-tech methods.

Future Expansion

The EduLab Group will support Authess’s business development using its knowledge in test development and administration and its US and Asian sales network. Specifically, the Group will expand Authess’s sales channels mainly around their corporations in the US and Asian countries.

About Authess

Authess is based in Boston, USA. Boston has many top-level universities including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (hereinafter referred to as MIT) and is a town where many talented people gather. Authess was established by an MIT faculty member and former provost, an MIT Sloan graduate, and Mr. Crockett in 2015. The management team includes a CEO, Mr. Crockett, with related business and industry experience, and a machine learning engineer with a doctoral degree from MIT. Authess was founded in order to shrink the gap between education or training and the competency required in actual business. Its mission is to clarify, measure, and nurture individual competencies with their own technology utilizing machine learning and big data analytic methods in order to respond to the needs of the rapidly evolving business environment.

[Company Overview]

Company Name

Authess, Inc.

President

Paul Crockett, CEO

Headquarters

Massachusetts, USA

Established

January 2015

Website

http://www.authess.com/

About EduLab Group

EduLab Group, headquartered in Tokyo, is building new businesses and investment in the field of Edtech, providing IT solutions and platforms for the education industry, and supporting next generation education and school management systems. With offices in Tokyo, Seattle, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Pune, and Bangalore – EduLab Group is a global platform.

More information can be found at https://www.edulab-inc.com/en/