Reforge Announces $60 Million Series B Funding to Expand Knowledge and Networking Opportunities for Members

SAN FRANCISCO, March 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Reforge, the leading career development platform for top-tier professionals in Growth, Product, Marketing and Engineering announced today a $60M Series B round led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, True Ventures, NextView Ventures, TCV, Long Journey Ventures, and more than 170 individual operators.

For the past five years, Reforge has redefined career development for professionals as a destination for a continuous stream of problem and solution finding, while creating a new type of market for VP and C-level expertise that previously did not exist. As Reforge grew, it was able to help more professionals scale themselves and their companies by offering new programs and topics, including deeper dives in product management, engineering leadership and data, as well as more earned insights from VPs and C-level executives.

"Reforge is pioneering a new vision for career development where professionals can learn from industry experts who have mastered their craft, then apply those learnings by connecting with others working on similar problems," said Allyson White, Managing Director at Insight Partners. "We have evolved from having one job our entire career to many jobs. And today, professionals not only have more jobs, they also want to unlock their expertise in a number of different ways, such as advising, consulting and mentoring in order to achieve fulfillment and growth in their work."  

The pandemic validated this new approach to career development and further accelerated the need for Reforge. With more than 30 million Americans quitting their jobs in the Great Resignation, and software transforming traditional in-person experiences around the world, the following needs were brought into focus:

• Focusing on navigating "the messy middle" of careers, where professionals spend most of their careers navigating from Individual Contributor to Senior Manager through a non-linear journey of twists, turns, challenges, and changes
• Unlocking the expert economy to focus on those who are doing the work, but don't have access to distribution of their expertise and knowledge
• Transforming the traditional job growth trajectory of the past

"Reforge is uniquely well-positioned to transform the career development landscape because their membership model, content, and experts can carry an employee through the full career journey and the ability to learn across other areas leads to more and better partnership between function," said Adam Fishman, Executive in Residence at Reforge and former VP Product and Growth at Patreon. "Building your career isn't just about taking a single course -- as your needs change, Reforge is there to meet them."

Reforge will use the funds from this latest round to make the network and marketplace behaviors it's already seeing organically within its ecosystem–such as consulting and advising–available to more members and experts. In doing so, Reforge will expand the knowledge and networking opportunities available on the platform, creating a new type of professional network and marketplace.

"Reforge has everything you'd want if you tried to rebuild the MBA program for today's world: modern frameworks, taught by operators not professors, on the topics you're dealing with at work right now, while retaining the ability to meet a bunch of talented people in similar phases of their careers," said Casey Winters, Chief Product Officer at Eventbrite. "Only Reforge makes it possible for operators like me to scale what I've learned to the next generation of leaders while continuing my day job. It's also the best tool I have as a leader to level up the thinking of my teams."

About Reforge

Reforge is the world's leading career development platform for top-tier professionals in Growth, Product, Marketing, and Engineering. Reforge membership combines cohort-based programs with year-round access to the highest caliber of content and community.

About Insight Partners

Insight Partners is a global software investor partnering with in high-growth technology, software, and Internet startup and ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. As of February 24, 2022, the closing of the firm's recent fundraise, Fund XII, brings Insight Partners regulatory assets under management to over $90B. Insight Partners has invested in more than 600 companies worldwide and has seen over 55 portfolio companies achieve an IPO. Headquartered in New York City, Insight has offices in London, Tel Aviv, and Palo Alto. Insight's mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Insight Partners meets great software leaders where they are in their growth journey, from their first investment to IPO. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.

SOURCE Reforge