We’re thrilled to share that FourthRev, the career accelerator connecting universities with the digital economy, has raised $8M in a Series A led by Educapital – and we’re following on once again, alongside Reach Capital and Danner Capital.
FourthRev has been part of the Emerge community from the very beginning: we backed founders Jack Hylands and Omar de Silva at pre-seed, and again in their £2.3M seed round last year. Three rounds, three checks. We only back like that when we’re convinced we’re watching a winner.
The problem FourthRev tackles is the great mismatch of our time: 85M jobs are forecast to be displaced by automation while 97M new ones are created – but the skills pipeline isn’t ready. Retraining at that scale needs two things: a credential people trust and a route employers recognise, but traditional education systems cannot scale to meet this demand. Universities have the credibility and reach; employers have the demand; what’s been missing is the bridge.
FourthRev’s Career Accelerators are that bridge: six-month programmes built with institutions like the London School of Economics and King’s College London, alongside industry partners including Tableau and GitHub, to take learners from study to employment in high-growth digital roles.
From our very first call, Jack and Omar were the kind of operators you remember: clear, numbers-first, allergic to hand-waving – and they moved from idea to real momentum faster than almost anything we’d seen at that stage. For us this was a bullseye. Stage, geography, theme and, above all, impact: universities finally given a credible way to carry relevant skills to lifelong learners at scale.
“When Jack and Omar first pitched us, the idea that top universities would co-build career-first digital programmes felt contrarian. It now feels inevitable. That’s usually the sign you’ve backed the best founders – they make the future look obvious in hindsight.”
Jan, Emerge
The funding will launch new Career Accelerators in cybersecurity, AI, analytics, UX and project management, as well as double the FourthRev team worldwide.
Congratulations, Jack, Omar and team. Vive la revolution!
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