Worker skills intelligence startup AstrumU shuts down after running out of capital
AstrumU founder Adam Wray.
AstrumU, a Bellevue, Wash.-based startup that developed a worker skills data platform, is closing.
Adam Wray, the company's CEO and founder, confirmed the shutdown and said the company is insolvent.
Founded in 2018, Astrum got off the ground with a platform that aimed to calculate the value of an individual's skills and experiences in the labor market. It initially generated revenue from colleges and employers.
Wray told GeekWire in 2018 that his goal was to be the 'true North Star for students and universities,' helping match skills and experience with impactful careers.
Wray said on Thursday that the company was trying to apply AI to extract and verify an individual's skills from multiple data sources. But he said the company was too early to market by several years and ran out of capital 'before we could apply the learnings at scale.'
The company raised more than $50 million to date, Wray said, and employed more than 70 people at its peak. It had 30 employees as of this week, according to LinkedIn.
Kingdom Capital led a $7.6 million round in 2020. Other investors include Ignition Partners; Correlation Ventures; the University of Kansas; KC Rise Fund; ASU ScaleU; City Light Capital; Heidrick Struggles chairman Adam Warby; Docusign founder Court Lorenzini; and the University of Kansas, where the company was originally incubated.
Wray previously served as CEO of Tier 3, a Bellevue-based cloud computing company that sold to CenturyLink in 2013. He later was CEO of Seattle-area database company Basho Technologies.
Kaj Pedersen, CTO at AstrumU since 2019, is retiring, according to a post on LinkedIn.
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