SmartUp

SmartUp.io, co-founded in 2014 by serial entrepreneur Brent Hoberman, Frank Meehan, and Henry Lane-Fox, operated as a peer-to-peer microlearning platform before ceasing operations in April 2024. Hoberman, known for co-founding Lastminute.com and Made.com, brought extensive experience in building and scaling technology ventures. His entrepreneurial journey is marked by significant exits and the creation of influential tech communities like Founders Forum and accelerators like Founders Factory. Meehan's background includes roles at Horizons Ventures, representing the firm at companies like Spotify and Siri, and as a Global GM at Hutchison Whampoa Group. The company's mission was to offer a gamified, mobile-first platform for knowledge sharing within the entrepreneurial and corporate ecosystems.

The platform was designed for communities of startup founders, corporate innovators, and business schools to create and consume bite-sized learning content. It functioned as a B2B SaaS solution, allowing organizations to establish dedicated communities and sub-communities where teams could engage with relevant educational material. Revenue was generated through a per-user, per-month subscription model, targeting clients such as banks, insurance companies, and mobile operators. The service featured interactive quizzes, polls, and analytics, with leaderboards to encourage learner engagement. It distinguished itself with a focus on simplicity and affordability for team-based training and knowledge exchange.

SmartUp.io's product was a peer-to-peer learning application accessible on any device, intended to help organizations manage their workforce's knowledge development. It allowed users to create, share, and interact with learning content in a gamified environment. Key features included the ability to build a digital academy, create sub-communities for targeted learning, and utilize analytics to track engagement. The platform supported multiple languages with video translation and captioning capabilities. Despite securing approximately $5.5 million in funding across several rounds since its inception in 2014, the London-based educational software company ultimately went out of business.

Keywords: microlearning, peer-to-peer learning, corporate training, edtech, gamification, knowledge sharing, startup education, mobile learning platform, enterprise learning, community-based learning, Brent Hoberman, Frank Meehan, Founders Factory, SaaS, B2B training, employee engagement, digital academy, interactive learning, bite-sized content, knowledge management