HearstLab and Fitch Learning Take Major Stake in Founderz to Launch Strategic AI Partnership to Help Close Industry Skills Gap

Fitch Learning, the global leader in financial services education, and Founderz, Europe’s premier AI business school, today announced a strategic partnership that will provide learners worldwide with innovative, personalized training that combines Fitch’s deep expertise in financial services education with Founderz’s award-winning, multilingual AI learning platform and global community reach.

The partnership is underpinned by a strategic investment in Founderz by HearstLab, a Hearst investment arm. HearstLab invests globally in women-led companies building high-potential, category-defining businesses. Fitch Learning is part of Fitch Group, which is owned by Hearst.

“HearstLab's investment in Founderz reflects our long-term commitment to dynamic, women-led technology startups, as well as advancing Fitch Group’s education mission,” said Eve Burton, Executive Vice President, Hearst and Co-Founder & Chairwoman of HearstLab. “This partnership represents an investment model for us to connect companies building great technology with the operators across Hearst looking to scale innovation and maintain their competitive edge in an AI-first world.”

HearstLab's international portfolio now extends to more than twenty investments outside the United States. "Founderz is a powerful reminder of the importance of international markets. Hubs like Barcelona are producing extraordinary companies with the ambition, talent, and technology to scale globally and connect with leading corporations anywhere in the world," said Azahara García, Director, HearstLab International.

Both enterprise clients and individual professionals will benefit from critical learning solutions to reduce skill gaps, support compliance and help scale across languages and geographies. 

Fitch Learning serves more than 1,200 financial institutions and develops over 125,000 professionals annually, across every financial services sector: banking, global markets and trading, wealth and asset management, private credit and insurance. 

“HearstLab’s investment in Founderz signals a step change in how professional skills will be developed in the years ahead. By partnering with Founderz, Fitch Learning is ensuring that financial services organizations can access these next-generation capabilities — empowering their people to learn faster, adapt quicker and stay ahead in an increasingly AI-driven world,” said Andreas Karaiskos, CEO of Fitch Learning.

Founderz is an AI business school and a Microsoft Worldwide Training Partner that specializes in artificial intelligence and business education. With a global community of over 630,000 learners across five continents, it delivers practical and accessible AI learning for professionals and organizations.

“Founderz has built a platform engineered to scale personalized learning, real-world practice, and AI adoption across languages and geographies,” said Anna Cejudo and Pau Garcia-Milà, Co-Founders, Founderz. “Working with Fitch Learning and HearstLab means those capabilities will be applied to content developed by practitioners who know financial services inside out, combining learning paths, simulations, and AI teammates to deliver measurable outcomes that organizations and learners can trust.”

“This partnership is an exciting new step for Fitch Group, designed to future-proof industry learning by delivering a best-in-class solution to our clients. Crucially, by combining Fitch Learning and Founderz, this will be AI-enabled learning built from inside financial services — not generic AI training applied to it from the outside,” said Paul Taylor, President & CEO of Fitch Group.

About Fitch Learning

Fitch Learning, part of Fitch Group, is a trusted global provider of financial education. Built on deep expertise in credit and strengthened by broad experience across financial services, we deliver impactful learning solutions through client-focused programs, courses and professional qualifications. Harnessing digital innovation and AI-driven learning tools, we empower organizations worldwide to build future-ready teams. Fitch Learning owns the Canadian Securities Institute, Certificate in Quantitative Finance Institute (CQFI), and the Global Institute of Credit Professionals, dedicated to supporting finance professionals throughout their career journeys. For more information, visit fitchlearning.com.

About HearstLab

HearstLab is a strategic corporate venture fund providing cash investments and operational support to women-led startups. Founded in 2016, HearstLab has invested globally in more than 90 companies with a combined valuation exceeding $3 billion. Portfolio companies benefit from access to resources across Hearst's 370+ businesses and a Scout network of more than 200 women leaders who provide expertise and strategic guidance. HearstLab invests from the pre-seed to Series A stages with a goal of closing the gender gap in venture funding. For more information, visit www.hearstlab.com.

About Founderz

Founderz is an AI business school and a Microsoft Worldwide Training Partner founded in 2021 by Pau Garcia-Milà and Anna Cejudo. The company helps professionals and organizations understand, adopt, and scale artificial intelligence in their day-to-day operations.Through a combination of proprietary technology, practical learning content, AI agents, and learning experiences designed with industry experts, Founderz teaches how to apply AI in an ethical and responsible way to solve real-world problems, optimize processes, improve decision-making, and accelerate team and organizational transformation. With more than 630,000 people trained and over 1,600 companies supported worldwide, Founderz has built a global community focused on applied AI learning. For more information, visit founderz.com.

Media Contact

Ellen Schneidau
Fitch Learning
ellen.schneidau@allisonworldwide.com

Ashanti Pratt
HearstLab
Ashanti.Pratt@hearst.com

Mireia Català
Founderz
mireia.catala@founderz.com