The Digital Marketing Institute has bagged a €26m investment from private equity firm Spectrum Equity, to help fund its ongoing expansion programme around the world.
Spectrum Equity’s previous investments include Lynda.com, SurveyMonkey and Bitly.
The Digital Marketing Institute has experienced rapid growth, with over 18,000 professionals in 115 countries having completed its learning programs to date. Since 2014, it has grown 73% annually on the back of strong uptake of its online and corporate learning programs, as well as licensed courses offered via a network of 100+ education partners globally.
As part of the investment, Adam Margolin and Parag Khandelwal of Spectrum Equity will be joining the Digital Marketing Institute’s board of directors. Ted Weissberg, former CEO of ACAMS, which was acquired for $330m last year, will join the board as executive chairman.
“There is an urgent need for digital marketing and digital sales education for professionals,” said Adam Margolin of Spectrum Equity. “The Digital Marketing Institute is uniquely positioned to address this growing global skills gap through its innovative, industry-validated certification programs. We are excited to partner with Ken Fitzpatrick, Ted Weissberg and the rest of the Digital Marketing Institute team as we look to scale the business globally and build the leading training and certification provider for sales and marketing professionals across all industries.”
According to Ken Fitzpatrick, CEO: “While we are very proud of the international growth achieved by the Digital Marketing Institute to date through self-funding, we recognise the potential scale that can be realised with investment. Spectrum Equity has a great track record in EdTech and digital marketing technology spaces, and with Ted Weissberg’s significant experience scaling a similar professional learning and certification business, I’m confident this is the right investment partnership to realise our global ambitions.”
