Welsh-Founded DeepLearn Unveils Apprenticeship Intelligence Platform

DeepLearn Human Science has unveiled its apprenticeship intelligence platform, aiming to help employers, providers and learners improve fit, retention and progression as the Welsh-founded company prepares for UK expansion.

Welsh-founded human science company DeepLearn Human Science has outlined its ambition to build a new apprenticeship intelligence platform for Wales and the wider UK, designed to help employers, providers and learners improve fit, support, retention and progression.

The company is preparing a £5m to £7m conversion capital raise to accelerate its apprenticeship-led growth strategy, strengthen its product suite and support wider deployment across employer, education and regional skills markets.

DeepLearn’s initial focus is the apprenticeship sector, where learning, work, public funding and employer need intersect. The company says this makes apprenticeships a strong route into addressing a wider challenge facing the UK economy: poor fit between people, pathways, skills and work.

Through Yondur, its apprenticeship intelligence platform, DeepLearn helps providers and employers understand learners earlier. The platform looks beyond static signals such as CVs, grades and prior attainment, helping reveal developing human capability including cognitive strengths, motivation, confidence, emotional regulation, numeracy, literacy, readiness, pathway fit and support needs.

The aim is to support better fit, better support and stronger retention.

DeepLearn also owns and operates Cognisess, its employer intelligence platform, which applies behavioural and capability insight to hiring, performance and workforce development. The company is also developing Agora, a future opportunity marketplace designed to connect capability to jobs, apprenticeships, internships, mentoring and progression routes.

Together, the product suite creates a connected flow: Yondur helps understand the learner earlier, Cognisess connects learner insight to employer value, and Agora will help turn capability into opportunity.

Chris Butt, Founder and CEO of DeepLearn Human Science, said:

“Most systems see people too late. They see attendance, grades, CVs and completion. Those things matter, but they rarely show the developing person underneath.

“What we have built over many years is a way of seeing human capability earlier. Fit, confidence, motivation, readiness and support needs all shape whether someone progresses or drops out. Apprenticeships are the right first market because the need is immediate, the funding exists and the outcomes are measurable.

“Our ambition is to build from Wales into the UK, using apprenticeships as the funded wedge into a wider human capability infrastructure business.”

DeepLearn’s IP has been built over more than a decade. Its asset base includes more than 30 proprietary cognitive, emotional, social and wellbeing diagnostics, over 300m structured data points, 6.3m assessments, more than 1.1m video interviews and 500,000 profiles.

The company’s technology has already been used across employment, education and workforce innovation, with experience serving global employers and public-facing programmes. It previously traded as Cognisess Ltd and is now transitioning its commercial activity under DeepLearn Human Science.

The next phase will focus on three connected priorities: apprenticeship intelligence; employer and workforce intelligence; and human capability infrastructure.

DeepLearn will work with providers, colleges, employers and regional partners to help improve learner fit, early support, retention, progression and employer value. Through Cognisess, the company will support employers to use deeper human insight to improve hiring, performance, team composition, retention and workforce planning.

The company will also develop regional, sovereign and data-led capability models designed to support education, employment, public policy and economic development.

DeepLearn is especially interested in speaking with employers across fintech, financial services, technology, professional services and other South Wales growth sectors that already invest in apprenticeships, graduate pathways, skills programmes or early-career talent.

Chris Butt added:

“We are not trying to replace human judgement. We are trying to improve the conditions around it.

“Good employers and providers already care about learner success. What they often lack is the earlier signal. If we see the pattern earlier, we support better. If we support better, more people stay, progress and grow into meaningful work.

“That is good for the learner, good for the employer and good for the economy.”

DeepLearn is now preparing partnerships, pilots and investor conversations to support the next stage of growth.