Sana Labs AB, a startup using artificial intelligence to optimize companies’ employee training programs, has nabbed a $34 million funding round to grow its customer base. 

Sana announced the Series B round on Tuesday. According to the startup, the investment was led by Menlo Ventures with participation from returning backer EQT Ventures. Multiple angel investors participated as well.

Stockholm-based Sana provides a platform that enables companies to create training courses and other learning content for employees. A startup, for example, could create a course that familiarizes new employees with its software. Sana also promises to ease the development of department-specific learning content, such as training materials for salespeople. 

The platform enables users to create courses through a drag-and-drop interface. A course can be assembled from the existing learning content and data assets in a company’s applications. According to Sana, its platform retrieves the necessary data assets from a company’s applications via a set of prepackaged connectors. 

Sana offers several AI features designed to speed up the course development workflow. The startup’s platform can automatically generate interactive content elements such as quizzes, as well as customize them for each employee. It also uses AI to translate learning content automatically into multiple languages. 

“Now a $30 billion industry, the learning and development market has demanded more sophisticated tools,” said Menlo Ventures partner JP Sanday. “With a world-class product and incredible team, Sana is uniquely positioned to win the market. They offer two vital benefits to the historically underserved L&D category: the scalability and efficiency of artificial intelligence and the compelling experience of a consumer-grade product.”

Companies can track the effectiveness of their Sana-powered employee training programs through a built-in analytics dashboard. It tracks the number of workers who take a course, while measuring several related metrics such as course completion times.

The platform enables customers to sync data about their employee training programs to other applications for analysis using a built-in workflow tool. According to Sana, the tool makes it possible to create software workflows that not only move data to external platforms, but also automate other repetitive business tasks.

Sana says its annual recurring revenue grew sevenfold, off an undisclosed base, in the 12 months leading up to its newly announced funding round. The startup counts Merck & Co., Klarna AB and other prominent companies among its customers.

“By leveraging the power of AI, Sana can unlock organizational knowledge with unprecedented scale and speed, supercharging the organizations we serve,” said founder and Chief Executive Officer Joel Hellermark.

Sana will use its new funding to develop additional features for its platform. The startup will also hire more employees across its offices in Stockholm, London and New York to support growth initiatives. 

Image: Sana