The focus of Future Planet Capital Regional is transforming some of the most innovative business visions into reality, building a brighter future for the West Midlands and positively impacting the regional economy. We play a fundamental role in providing regional pioneers with the funding and wider strategy support they need to continuously push new boundaries, not just from the outset, but for many years to come.
Our investment strategy creates jobs in the local economy and enhances the reputation of the West Midlands Combined Authority area as a fantastic place to do business. The by-product of success is additional profits for the fund’s investors who can go on to invest further in the region’s early stage scale-ups.
One of our portfolio companies is Assemble You, which delivers short-form, high-impact training content tailored to modern workforces, with a focus on soft skills, leadership development, and inclusion . We spoke to Adam Lacey, co-founder of Assemble You, and FPC Regional’s Investment Director, Rupert Lyle, who is also Fund Principal of West Midlands Co-Investment Fund (WMCO) about the business.
Where did the concept of Assemble You come from and why did it resonate with Future Planet Capital Regional?
Adam: Both Richard (co-founder of Assemble You) and I wanted to expand our learning and continue developing ourselves, but we both found that with the stresses of daily life, it was near impossible when it came to studying traditional courses or even books.
We did realise, however, that we both managed to fit podcasts and audiobooks into our schedules. The idea of Assemble You was born from realising that listening on-the-go enabled us to learn during ‘dead time’ throughout the day. That’s when we realised that this could be a learning method, not just for us, but for huge numbers of people who might be excluded from traditional learning for a range of different reasons.
Rupert: Conventional e-learning methods, like lengthy videos and click-through modules, often fail to engage learners or adapt to the time constraints and diverse needs of modern workers. Assemble You’s short audio lessons, that are designed and built as pieces of learning but delivered as easy-to-listen podcasts, have the potential to transform continuous learning for so many people.
Having worked within learning and development and HR spaces, both Richard and I understood that upskilling and training delivery is a big challenge for these departments. By offering podcast-style audio learning that is easily accessible and mobile-first, it can put upskilling and learning directly into the hands of workers who can fit it around their lifestyle and needs.
Another crucial facet of the Assemble You offering is its prioritisation of inclusivity. Underserved groups such as deskless and neurodiverse employees are particularly disadvantaged by traditional learning formats. Those who may struggle with visual and text-heavy formats can access the learning in a way that not only improves knowledge retention, but is delivered in a way that is easily digestible.
Employers are seeing that this method of delivering training, not only supports development, but also reduces training costs and time investment for employers.
How has the investment from Future Planet Capital Regional helped you expand and develop?
With the investment from Future Planet Capital Regional, we’ve been able to grow our go-to-market team, bring on a head of content, invest in more marketing to help elevate and communicate our product and proposition, and to also launch a new product line. That wouldn’t have been possible without the backing of Future Planet Capital Regional.
The vision of our fund is to make the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) area a fantastic place to start and grow a business. Our purpose is to invest in the region’s most exciting early stage scaleups and collaborate with management teams post-investment to help make them genuinely robust and sustainable businesses. We can do that by giving advice and facilitating access to global networks. We want to see Assemble You succeed and we share Adam and Richard’s vision to help upskill workers, both within the region and beyond.
Thanks to that investment, we’ll be able to promote our messaging around audio learning, reach more prospective customers and support more people to develop critical business and behavioural skills. The bandwidth that this investment gives us means we’re able to focus on innovative product development as well as being able to support learning around major business challenges such as AI adoption.
How does this investment support the growth of the West Midlands’ knowledge and skills economy?
There has been a widely recognised skills gap across the board for decades, both regionally and more broadly across the UK. In recent years this has widened further when it comes to emerging technologies and artificial intelligence. Having an organisation like Assemble You looking to deliver upskilling and training in a digestible way to a broader audience through its innovative methods can only help address that gap.
We are dedicated to supporting the adoption and fluency of AI skills, and the necessary behavioural skills in order for workers to utilise AI effectively. Starting that journey in the heart of the region is a great opportunity to positively impact the West Midlands and hopefully help create the next generation of entrepreneurs, who have been able to upskill using our learning and development tools.
Businesses interested in exploring investment opportunities with Future Planet Capital Regional can visit the Pitch for Investment page, apply for the WMCO fund, or get in touch with the team for more information.