White Star Capital led the Series A round for the Waterloo, Ont.-based firm; other investors included Real Ventures, BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Fund and returning backers Garage Capital and Generation Ventures. The raise includes a “large majority” of equity capital and some debt, Uvaro CEO Joseph Fung said in an email to The Logic. (The Logic)

Talking point: Workers looking to retrain for inside sales and customer success roles at tech companies take Uvaro’s four- and 12-week online courses. The company has turned out more than 300 graduates so far. Fung, his sister Donna Litt and co-founder Derek Hall started Uvaro as an offshoot of Kiite, a tool for building sales guides, just before the pandemic. “COVID accelerated it in unexpected ways,” Fung told The Logic in July. The innovation economy mostly swerved the broader employment cliff, while digital learning took off. Uvaro is “helping people who are underemployed land more lucrative jobs in tech,” he said. The firm will use the capital to build out new programs and fund its scholarship offering, Fung said Tuesday. It also plans to grow from 30 staff to 40 by the end of the year, and double in 2022.