Investment funds new hires including CMO at Year13

A $10 million investment in Year13 has triggered a content, technology and executive recruitment spree by the edtech and youth digital engagement platform player. 

The recent investment, from software and technology investment manager, Future Now Capital, is helping Year13 build personalised online content for Gen Z as well as expand its 1.6 million-strong community. Year13's focus is on connecting school-leaving age students with various options for future study, as well as prospective career and personal development paths, government services, travel providers, media and brands. 

Year13 has also expanded its team from a dozen to 70 employees this year, including three recent leadership hires, to support growing demand. The most recent of these is national commercial director, Ann-Maree Mulders, who joined in the newly created role from 7 West Pacific, where she was national client partnerships director.

Mulders said she was attracted to the way Year13 makes connections with Gen Z happens as they’re exploring and making big life decisions. The organisation does this through virtual careers expos, social channels and working with government, industry, schools, employers and national brands.

“It’s a purposeful, influential and trusted connection,” she said. “The opportunity for brands to harness this connection through our rich content suite and e-learning platform is significant.” 

Two other executive appointments were made earlier this year including CMO, Simon Greally. He joined Year13 from data science company, Indy, where he was CEO. Year13’s CFO, Chris Adams, also joined the firm around the same time from CTA Finance, where he was a founder. Prior to this, Adams was CFO at GroupM.

"We’ve got a relentless focus to continue to grow our large digital community, while building personalised
online content experiences," Greally said. "Our partnerships with Tealium and Braze help us deliver world-class data personalisation, UX and targeting for our audience across our large digital and social network.
Additionally, all of Year13 content is produced by Gen Z’s for Gen Z, which is why the brand is so
popular with the demo.”

During the pandemic, Gen Z have faced the challenge of remote learning during lockdowns. Year13 co-founders, Saxon Phipps and Will Stubley, saw it as a crucial time for engagement.

“It’s been an absolutely huge 12 months for Year13," Phipps said." We want to empower all Gen Zs with the digital community, tools, and support at scale via the Year13 platform."

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