Funding And Investment
q u i c k
r e a d s
Degreed raises US$153m in Series D
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Upskilling platform Degreed has raised US$153 million in a Series D funding round co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Riverwood Capital, almost doubling
its total known capital raised—it is estimated to have drawn approximately US$335 million in investments to date. This latest investment, which values the company atUS$1.4 billion, comes less than a year after a U$32 million round last June that was led by Owl Ventures. The company says that the funds will be used to “accelerate product development, enhance data infrastructure, fuel global expansion, and pursue strategic acquisitions.” Some of the areas it plans to improve are reporting, analytics, security, and integration with other platforms or functions.
Life @ Work
Work From Home drives employee happiness: Study
The majority of U.S. workers’ job satisfaction is back to prepandemic levels, find a study by the People management platform Hibob. With ongoing remote work, the allowance of flexible work schedules, the ability to be autonomously productive, and time saved without a commute are contributing and shaping the next normal where a hybrid working model leads the way. The study also showed that with strong job satisfaction while remote, the rollout of the vaccine will not prompt employees to run back to the office five days a week.
| may 2021
Acquisition
Hitachi to acquire GlobalLogic for $9.6 BN Hitachi Ltd has announced its plan to acquire US-based software company GlobalLogic Inc for $9.6 BN, including repayment of the debt. The acquisition is part of Hitachi's ongoing business portfolio overhaul, which includes the $7 BN acquisition of ABB Ltd's power grid business last year and a series of divestitures of its domestic hardware subsidiaries. San Jose-based GlobalLogic is currently owned 45 percent each by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Swiss investment firm Partners Group. The rest is owned by the company's management.
Compensation & Benefits
‘Financial well-being is a new top priority for Singapore employers’
40 percent of employers in Singapore rank financial wellbeing as the most important part of their employee wellbeing strategy, according to new research by Aon. And they are acting on it: the 2021 Trends in Retirement & Financial Wellbeing survey found that companies are now incorporating financial well-being programs into their employee engagement and talent attraction strategies and that some 70 percent of Singapore employers are likely to offer their employees some form of financial education over the next two years. Part of the underlying issue is that many employees in Singapore may not have adequate savings for their retirement. While Singapore citizens and permanent residents receive Central Provident Fund benefits and some companies also offer top-up contributions to CPF on top of the statutory contributions, Aon's figures show that close to 40 percent of the working population in Singapore are foreigners who do not have access to CPF and are likely to have foregone their retirement benefits in their home countries.
