New Glasgow-based e-learning company Velsoft Training Materials has received a $150,000 loan from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency to facilitate its focus on international growth.
Velsoft’s product turns written training materials into interactive, industry-compliant eLearning. The company exports to more than 160 countries and includes many global brands among its clients. The company has grown from 10 employees in 2010 to nearly 30 today and has offices in Halifax, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Guatemala.
“We’re competing in a $200 billion global industry from our headquarters in New Glasgow,” Jim Fitt, company Presiden,t said in a statement.
“This project will help us move forward with ambitious marketing and business development plans to take advantage of a significant opportunity to showcase our technologies to the world.”
Velsoft sells an array of online learning and training materials, from virtual campuses to learning management systems, or LMS.
The global need for online learning software is rising. In a previous interview with Entrevestor, Fitt said the industry is growing by 7percent each year and, by the end of 2025, is projected to be worth $3.25 billion annually. He said the rising cost of traditional universities is making online learning popular.
“E-learning is failure without fear,” he said. “If you’re sitting in a class and you fail, you’re done. You have to pay for it and take it all over again. When you’re doing it online, if you don’t understand something, you can jump back and do it again.”
In 2012, the company released Znanja, a software that automates the production of online courses. Velsoft’s tech cuts the time it takes to build an online training platform, which is important because nearly 50 percent of job training is now done online.
“It takes 200 to 260 hours of work to create one hour of e-learning,” said Fitt. “We have a technology where you drag and drop and artificial intelligence creates it for you.”
The ACOA loan was made through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program.
Disclosure: ACOA is a client of Emtrevestor.
