The Stephens Group Participates in Accredible’s Series B Funding Led by Frontier Growth

October 4, 2023

New investment will further accelerate Accredible’s mission to help leading organizations issue, manage, and verify digital credentials

LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS – October 4, 2023 – The Stephens Group announced its participation in the Series B financing of Accredible, the world’s leading digital credentialing platform. The Series B financing was led by Frontier Growth with participation by new and existing investors, including The Stephens Group, PivotNorth, and Uncork Capital. The latest investment will continue accelerating Accredible’s growth and product innovation to meet the global demand for its platform from universities, associations, and technology companies looking to create and grow their digital credential programs.

Since its founding in 2013, Accredible has helped leading organizations streamline creating, issuing, managing, and verifying digital certificates and badges with its digital credentialing platform. Over 2,000 customers such as Skillsoft, Slack, IEEE, Cengage, and MIT rely on Accredible to issue and verify over 75 million career-advancing credentials on their behalf.

“With the explosion of skills-based hiring and the global demand for workers to upskill and reskill, 2023 has been a true watershed moment for the digital credential industry,” said Danny King, CEO and co-founder of Accredible. “We’re hearing from education, training, and association leaders that digital credentials have evolved to become the primary credentialing format for high-stakes credentials and are now a ‘need to have’ to keep pace with the future of work and education. The momentum we’re seeing validates our belief that while achieving certifications should be tough, managing and growing programs shouldn’t be.”

“We are delighted to partner with Accredible in their journey to accelerate the immutable trend of digitalization of the credential market,” said Andrew Lindner, Founding Partner of Frontier Capital, who will join the Accredible Board of Directors. “Accredible has emerged as the leading platform for third-party issuers of digital credentials with a particular focus on driving more revenue and better retention for their clients. This growth equity investment will enable the company to continue enhancing its line of credential products, offering even more value to their customers while providing an exceptional customer experience for the recipients of credentials.”

“We are excited to partner with the Accredible team as they continue to execute on their vision to bring credentialing into the digital world,” said Ryan Morrow, Principal at the Stephens Group. “Through our ed tech vertical, we identified the need for more efficient management of credentials as they have become an increasingly critical component of the modern educational journey. Students now earn numerous credentials throughout their careers, and Accredible’s solution enables the efficient management of these credentials, both for the issuer and student.”

The investment comes on the heels of Accredible being named to the 2023 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies and Best SaaS Product for Learning Management or Training by the 2023 SaaS Awards. Accredible was also recently named as one of Inc.’s Best Workplaces for 2023 and No. 25 on the 2023 WorkLife 50 list.

To learn more about Accredible’s open positions or to apply, visit https://careers.accredible.com.

ABOUT ACCREDIBLE
Accredible is the industry-leading digital credentialing platform that securely issues, manages, tracks, and verifies over 75 million career-advancing credentials globally. Accredible integrates with learning software, including Canvas, D2L Brightspace, Kajabi, Kryterion Webassessor, Moodle, Thinkific, and more. Over 2,000 leading universities, associations, and technology companies such as Google, Skillsoft, Slack, Chartered Banker Institute, University of Cambridge, AMPP, Hootsuite, IEEE, Cengage, MIT, Rutgers, UC Berkeley, AMBA, and The Digital Marketing Institute rely on Accredible to create, deliver, and manage digital certificates and open badges. To learn more, visit accredible.com.

ABOUT THE STEPHENS GROUP, LLC
The Stephens Group, LLC is a private investment firm that partners with talented management teams to help build valuable businesses. Backed by the resources of the Witt Stephens, Jr. and Elizabeth Campbell families, the firm combines the operational expertise of a private equity firm with the flexibility provided by long-term capital. With nearly $2 billion of private equity assets under management, the firm has a long history of providing informed, sophisticated expertise and working with owners and managers to help them successfully achieve their strategic visions and build long-term value. Since 2006, The Stephens Group has invested in over 50 companies, targeting investments in industries across the U.S., including industrial and commercial products and services, specialty distribution, technology infrastructure and vertical software.