As part of its efforts to grow and raise capital, AI platform Skillmaker.ai has landed several contracts and partnerships, including its most recent partnership with Cape Fear Ventures.

The startup accelerates the time it takes to train people to competency, according to Robin Cowie, Skillmaker.ai’s founder and CEO.

“Currently, it takes two years for an auto technician to be trained for NAPA. We’re reducing that to 25 days,” he said.

Skillmaker.ai also integrates extended reality — including virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality — with artificial intelligence, and its training framework targets industries facing labor shortages.

Cape Fear Ventures agreed to invest in the company in May. In its announcement of the partnership in an Instagram post, it wrote that America has both a worker shortage and a “training bottleneck.” It added that companies in energy, telecom, automotive and construction are struggling because of labor shortages and the time it takes to train new technicians.

The venture capital firm then praised the startup for working to fix that training impediment, emphasizing that the company significantly shortens the time it takes to cultivate workers.

As for business development, Skillmaker.ai has landed multiple contracts, and it’s near the end of closing its $3 million pre-seed round of funding.

“We have a contract with Genuine Parts Company that owns NAPA Auto Parts,” said Cowie. He added that the startup also has a deal with Automotive Service Excellence and a contract with Fedcap Champion.

Genuine Parts Company is a distributor of automotive and industrial replacement parts, and NAPA Auto Parts provides automotive parts and accessories for cars, trucks and SUVs. In like manner, Automotive Service Excellence focuses on the automotive industry, but a key difference is that it primarily tests and certifies automotive service professionals.

Fedcap Champion, on the other hand, meshes Fedcap’s workforce development expertise with Skillmaker.ai’s extended reality to transform the training process for certain careers, according to Skillmaker.ai’s website.

Cowie also offered insight into the company’s plans for the future.

“We are actively talking to other new customers, and so, you know, we’re generating revenue,” he said. “We were revenue-positive last year (and) revenue-positive this year. But we are still looking for the final capital in the pre-seed round. We’re open to conversations, but that should be closed shortly.”

He added that — in addition to actively raising money — Skillmaker.ai has a “number of potential investors that are very close to closing.” As for the remainder of 2025, Cowie said the company will be starting up with a new client and delivering NAPA.