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Antwerp/New York – Mediahuis Ventures, the venture capital arm of European media group Mediahuis, is investing in BUNCH, a New York and Berlin based  AI coaching startup. Together with investment partners M13 and Atlantic Labs, 1 million euros will be injected to bolster international growth plans for BUNCH’s new AI leadership coach, an iPhone app used by millennial managers to get personalized, 2-minute daily coaching.

After several months in beta, BUNCH launched its AI leadership coach in November 2020 (iOS only).  The app features a unique concept of personalized 2-minute daily coaching, and has rapidly amassed a community of nearly 20,000 users (growing 7% week-over-week).

By fusing psychology, micro-learning, and AI, BUNCH makes it easy for millennial managers to level up with their morning coffee. That means it takes into account users’ leadership style, the challenges they’re facing with their team, and the skills they want to build. Instructionally designed by an in-house team of psychologists and coaches, BUNCH has also collaborated with best-selling authors and entrepreneurs such as Nir Eyal (author of ‘Hooked’), Jeff Haden (‘The Motivation Myth’), and Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz and Sparktoro) for exclusive learning opportunities.

BUNCH enables first time managers to make small improvements each day that compound into big results over time, making leadership skills much more accessible to a wide audience. The startup serves managers, as well as team members from companies like Slack, TikTok, PayPal, N26, Tier and many others, with 40% of its user base being US-based, 16% in the EU and the rest in up and coming markets, like India, Africa and South America.

Mediahuis Ventures, responsible for the development of the group’s venture capital activities, aims to further broaden Mediahuis’ development potential by focusing on new growth markets and business models. This includes looking at markets and activities that are in line with the social role of Mediahuis, which is the case for the education technology market. The capital injection into BUNCH is Mediahuis Ventures’ second investment in this market. The media group previously invested in the Dutch company Lepaya, which specializes in blended soft skills training.

Paul Verwilt, COO Mediahuis: “BUNCH focuses in a unique way on young professionals who are often taking their first managerial steps and helps them develop their managerial skills in a casual manner. The relevant and personalized content, combined with the low time investment, has ensured that BUNCH has become part of thousands of managers’ daily routine. But more importantly, BUNCH makes this sort of development, which can be decisive for someone’s future career, accessible to a wide audience. Leadership can be learned but is often not accessible to everyone. This is where BUNCH makes a difference. And that is why we believe in BUNCH’s large and international growth potential.”

The BUNCH AI leadership coach is available in the Apple App Store.

Website BUNCH: www.bunch.ai