Overview of Udao

Udao is the first platform that simultaneously upskills talents and fills vacancies—matching verified skills to open roles, then paying people to learn the skills employers can't find.

Udao is designed to bridge the global skills gap by connecting learning directly with hiring and recruitment opportunities. Through advanced AI & blockchain driven technology, Udao enables talents to acquire job-relevant skills, supports educators in delivering impactful content, and helps organizations efficiently identify, hire and retain the right skilled talent.

Utilizing an advanced skills architecture and a unique token-based economy, Udao incentivizes personal growth, professional credibility, and teaching emerging and in-demand skills, creating a dynamic, constantly evolving ecosystem.

With Udao, organizations can hire faster and retain top talents, while talents can learn the relevant skills that are demanded by the market.

The Problem: Global Skills Gap

Employers do not find the right skilled people and talents do not know what keeps them relevant.

The rapid pace of technological advancement and economic changes has led to a widening skills gap worldwide. Companies can't hire the skills they need, while workers don't know which skills to learn.

This disconnect between the skills provided by the education system and those demanded by employers poses major challenges to workforce productivity, economic growth, and individual employability.

And as AI disrupts jobs and the demand for new skills accelerates even more, organizations face a double challenge: reskill their workforce and hire faster and smarter to stay competitive.

The Solution: Udao

Bring the right talent, with the right skills, to the right place

Udao addresses this issue by providing a fully integrated platform that combines learning and recruiting, on one platform with a Network of Talents, Organizations and Educators. The platform offers a Learning Marketplace, where talents upskill and make themselves relevant. It also offers a Recruiting Marketplace where organizations can find and manage suitable talents via different AI-empowered Tools.

• Udao helps Talents through the massive amount of learning opportunities and gives them a personalized learning plan to become and stay relevant
• Udao helps organizations through the massive amount of applicants and talents and give them AI-tools to better find the most relevant talent.

Key Benefits and Features

• Organizations can find faster, better and with lower costs suitable talents, while retaining top talents
• Talents have a simple tool to become and stay relevant with the goal to find a suitable job
• Educators have a simple way of sharing skills-oriented learning content, while keeping sovereignty about their content and earning the lion's share of the revenue.

What Sets Udao Apart

Udao differentiates itself by merging learning and recruitment into one skills-driven ecosystem, going beyond what job boards, learning platforms, or professional networks offer.

• Two-sided marketplace: Udao brings together organizations, talents, and educators, aligning supply and demand in one integrated platform.
• Dynamic Skills Engine: A proprietary, real-time taxonomy that converts every CV, job description, and course into a unified skills language, continuously updated with market data for instant matching and validation.
• Blockchain utility layer: Enables learn-to-earn incentives, token-based retention programs, and verified on-chain skill badges that guarantee trust and transparency.

Unlike traditional job boards or learning platforms, Udao combines:

• A learning marketplace with a focus on emerging and in-demand skills
• Job posting & ATS capabilities for efficient recruitment
• A real-time skills engine that bridges learning with employability
• Incentivized upskilling models (Learn-to-Earn and Contribute-to-Earn)
• Verified skill credentials to enhance resumes and paper certificates

Together, these elements make Udao the first platform designed to power the Skills Economy end-to-end.

Go-to-Market

Udao's market growth model is designed to scale rapidly through a partner-led structure, minimizing operational costs while maximizing reach, awareness, and adoption. By engaging local, vertical, and content-driven partners, Udao builds a self-reinforcing distribution network across both the demand and talent sides of the Skills Economy.

General Distribution Agent (GDA) – Core Driver, Country Growth

Exclusive per country, GDAs manage sales, marketing, and community building at scale. They receive 20–30% revenue share while enabling country-level expansion with zero OPEX for Udao.

Distribution Agent (DA) – Vertical & Niche Penetration

Non-exclusive agents drive vertical or sub-regional penetration through lead generation, bundles, and promo codes. They earn 15% revenue share (5% for GDA) and ensure rapid adoption within specific niches.

Branding & Media Partners – Awareness at Zero Cost

Media partnerships provide awareness for talents and job opportunities via job-post promotions and campaigns. They can receive up to 20% revenue share, helping Udao boost visibility and credibility at no direct cost.

Educator Partners (Academies) – Talent-Side Adoption

Educator partners act as global content providers, publishing courses and scaling talent-side adoption. They retain 75–80% of course revenues, while benefiting from Udao's Skills Graph and marketplace reach.

Status

Platform Status

The Udao platform has already accomplished major milestones in development with the implementation of several core features, thus offering concrete value to users and ensuring trust and transparency to investors. This includes:

• Talent Manager: A Udao product that allows organizations manage and source talents, e.g by using AI powered CV skill extraction, thus allowing them to go through hundreds of CVs at once to find the best candidates.
• Job Posts: Post job roles with manage applicants with Udao's Applicant Tracking System (ATS) for end-to-end recruiting.
• Job Marketplace: A hub where skilled talents can find jobs that match their skill level, and where organizations can create and release their own job postings.
• Course Marketplace: A diverse and expansive catalog of both free and premium courses in high-demand and emerging fields.
• Educator Marketplace: An expansive set of tools that allows educators to create high quality courses in minutes, with various assets such as videos, scripts, and quizzes.

Partner Status

Udao's unit economics are further strengthened by its expanding partner network, which accelerates growth and reduces acquisition costs:

• Global Distribution Agents: Agreements in place with France and Nigeria; LOI stage with Switzerland; expansion into Turkey, UAE, UK, and Tunisia.
• Distribution Agents: Agreement signed with Eurac; Reseller and ESA Agreement with IBM, Silver Partner of SAP
• Educators: Partnerships established with Udemy and TD Synnex Academy (IBM Learnings).
• Branding & Media: Agreement phase with a well known Newspaper from Africa and UK.

Team

• Proven Founding Team with Deep Tech & Business Expertise: Udao's co-founders bring 60+ years of experience across AI, blockchain, finance, and operations, with backgrounds at HSW/FR, IBM, ETH Zürich, and global technology ventures, ensuring both technical depth and strategic execution.
• Swiss-Based with Strong Governance: Built under anywAI AG (Switzerland), Udao benefits from Switzerland's trusted regulatory environment, combining financial discipline, legal compliance, and innovation leadership.
• Full-Stack Development & Design Capabilities: Udao's in-house team covers front-end, back-end, blockchain development, and UI/UX design, ensuring scalable architecture, robust security, and user-friendly experiences.
• Advisory Board of Global Experts: With leaders in education, talent management, legal, marketing, and Web3, Udao's advisory board provides strategic insights, regulatory guidance, and international business connections.
• Strong Strategic Partnerships: Collaborations with Udemy, SAP, IBM, Gate.io, MEXC, and international General Distribution Agents enhance Udao's reach in EdTech, recruitment, and crypto ecosystems, ensuring rapid adoption and market growth.

Purpose and Scope of the Whitepaper

This whitepaper aims to clearly outline Udao's strategic vision, innovative solutions, and technological advancements, providing stakeholders and potential users with a comprehensive understanding of the platform's value proposition, operational model, and future plans.

Udao's Vision and Mission

Udao's vision is to create a world where everyone has direct access to meaningful skills development and career opportunities, empowering individuals to continuously grow and succeed in the rapidly evolving global economy.

Our mission:

We build a platform that is simple to use, focus on performance and speed, and helps, while:

• Empowering individuals worldwide to develop job-ready skills and access meaningful career opportunities.
• Empowering organizations worldwide to find, train and retain top talent more efficiently and affordably than ever before.
• To provide a seamless integration of learning and recruitment, ensuring that education always aligns with industry needs and market trends.

Motivation

The Global Challenge

There is a noticeable gap between university education and actual market requirements, leaving more than half of all graduates without the skills demanded by today's job market, while companies struggle to find qualified talent. As a result, current workforces often lack the critical skills needed to drive economic growth.

• 1 billion+ people will need to reskill by 2030
• 40% of skills will be obsolete or automated with AI by 2030
• 75% of organizations report difficulties in hiring skilled employees.
• 50% of university graduates lack the skills needed for the job market.

To close this skills gap, a solution is needed that can rapidly and effectively upskill individuals and ensure they are placed where their skills are most in demand.

Major Global Key Drivers

The relentless race between labor and advancing technologies like AI, leaves workers struggling to keep up. We must persistently strive to match the speed of relentless technological and environmental progress. The world of work is undergoing a seismic shift, and powerful global forces further influence this trend, like:

• Migration: Migration patterns further complicate workforce planning, leading to opportunities and challenges in skills allocation.
• Green Transition: The global push for sustainability and climate change mitigation is driving the demand for green skills and jobs in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and environmental engineering.
• Global Economic Volatility: Economic uncertainties, including inflation, recessions, and geopolitical tensions, influence hiring trends and skill demands.
• Cultural and Generational Shifts: Different generations in the workforce (e.g., Gen Z, Millennials) bring different expectations, values, and skill sets, requiring businesses to navigate diverse workplace cultures.
• Geopolitical Influences: Trade wars, regional and global conflicts, and shifts in global power dynamics impact the availability of jobs and the movement of talent across borders.

Our Impact

Udao focuses on combining EdTech and Recruitment. Currently on the market you find isolated recruitment or learning platforms, which represent the only skills economy solutions that are available today.

Our goal is to bring these two industries together. We also aim to make the process of learning the right skills and placing the individual to the right place faster.

This motivates us to create a Skills Economy where learning and recruiting are combined together. Our focus in on future-oriented, employable skill development and systematically matching talents with corresponding opportunities and urgent needs from the market.

"Education (Skills) is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." — N. Mandela

With this skills oriented model, we can make an economic and social impact on:

• 1 billion people, that will no longer be relevant by 2030
• 75% of Businesses that struggle with hiring the right people
• 50% of collage graduates who lack the skills demanded by the current job market
• 281 Million non-working refugees who are a huge potential for economic value

Value Proposition

Udao main value proposition for its recruiting and learning marketplace are:

• Simplicity
• Performance Increasing
• Cost Cutting

• Organizations can hire faster, cheaper and with better matches, while retaining longer their top talents
• Talents stay relevant and find suitable working places
• Educators can monetize and protect their know-how

Udao Platform & Ecosystem

Udao is a Skills Economy Platform built around the idea that in today's digital world, skills are the new currency. Instead of relying on rigid resumes or traditional degrees, Udao places verifiable, real-world skills at the center of learning, teaching, and hiring.

Udao's ecosystem consists mainly of organizations, talents and educators. It connects its Recruiting Marketplace (Organization ↔ Talents) with its Learning Marketplace (Talent ↔ Educator).

Organization Key Features

• Post a job in under 3 minutes and get an instant short list based on your talent pool on Udao and suitable Udao Users that search actively for a new job role.
• Find and evaluate Talents based on real skills.
• Evaluate Talents based on verified skills.
• Retain Top Talents by giving them incentives for loyalties, upskilling etc.

Main Products are:

• Talent Manager to manage, evaluate and match your talents on Udao
• Job Posts to find new suitable talents out of your reach
• HR Retention Manager (BETA)

Talent Key Features

• Evaluate your personal skills gap for market oriented job roles
• Get your personal learning plan to close your skills gap
• Get incentivized to learn market relevant skills, dynamically driven by missing skills on the market
• Get suitable and personalized job opportunities

All services are for free for the talents, excl. the learnings on the Udao Learning Marketplace.

Instructor Key Features

• Publish your Course material, while keeping control and earn the lion's share of the revenue
• Protect your Course-IP and assets on Blockchain
• Create Micro Certificates and build Academies
• Amplify your reach and help to deliver what the market needs

Blockchain Utility Layer

Udao is a Web3 and blockchain empowered platform, which allows it to come up with various benefits for its users, e.g.

• The HR Retention Manager to retain top talent is enabled through smart contracts and controls the "Deal" between the employer and employee automatically.
• Learn&Earn mechanism delivers its value through a utility token, as with real money this is not economically achievable yet.

On top of allowing transactions to be processed with FIAT-currencies and various Cryptos, users can use the UDAO Token to gain access to exclusive features, benefits and discounts, like e.g.

• Talents can buy premium courses at a discount
• Educators can receive higher margins for course purchases
• All users can buy unique cosmetic items to customize their experience on the platform
• Organizations have discounts to Recruiting Services on Udao

All these features make the UDAO Token an integral part of the platform experience and turning it into one of the first Next Generation Utility Assets.

Differentiation

The main differentiation of the Udao platform compared to the market are:

Udao has a two-sided market place that combined learning and recruiting. Today there are only isolated learning platforms and/or recruiting platforms, but there is no platform that combines both industries although they naturally belong together. The only exception is LinkedIn, which combines recruiting with social media.

Another USP that allows us to smoothly combine the two markets is the AI-empowered Skills Engine. It converts all different taxonomy of job descriptions, CVs, learnings etc. into a proprietary real-time and dynamic adaptable Skills taxonomy.

Last but not least, the Blockchain Utility Layer gives a further USP by enabling features and tools that unlock value and new business models for all users that wouldn't be possible without blockchain.

Real Utility

The UDAO Token is a next generation digital asset that powers the Udao ecosystem. Unlike traditional platforms where value flows one way from user to institution, UDAO tokens empower users to participate, earn, influence and offering access to exclusive features and benefits. The core value of the UDAO Token include:

Value for the Community and Users:

Access discounts, earn higher profit margins, unlock premium features, and gain a voice in platform development, all by holding and using UDAO Tokens.

In the following there are three examples of Udao's Blockchain Utility Layer that is enabled through the UDAO Token:

Benefit Utility

For example holding UDAO gives organizations discounts for their recruiting tools. This concept brings in a new economic model and partially replaces "license fees" with an asset that can be sold later. Unlike traditional service platforms where payments are sunk costs, UDAO-based transactions retain utility and investment potential, even allowing businesses to reflect them on their balance sheets as tokenized assets.

Learn-to-Earn

Another example is the Learn-to-earn mechanism on Udao, where a slice of every paid Job Post flows into a bursary pool that pays people to learn demanded skills. This directly closes the global skills gap and sets Udao apart from every job board & LMS.

Retention of top Talents

A last example is the HR Retention Manager, that works with smart contracts that ties bonuses to hiring, performance and up-skilling to incentives with vesting schedules. This turns the token into a built-in HR retention and L&D incentive tool.

Value for Crypto Investors:

A real-world use case with continuous utility, demand driven by platform growth, and integration into a sustainable, skills-based economy.

Value for Udao:

The token creates a self-sustaining ecosystem, lowers costs, reduces reliance on external payment systems, and strengthens user loyalty through shared value.

At its core, the UDAO Token connects Web3 incentives with real-world outcomes to create a decentralized, fairer future for education and hiring.

DAO Governance Model

Udao's name origins from U and DAO. DAO is the abbreviation of Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), which is a blockchain-based governance model and ensures that the platform is co-shaped by its community of talents, educators, and organizations. At its core, Udao combines Web3 governance principles with a market-responsive framework that balances community ownership with platform stability.

To enable a fair governance mechanism, Udao has a voting non-linear voting system measured by the amount of UDAO Tokens that are hold. This ensures that decision-making power is equitably distributed across stakeholders and not dominated by whales. This creates a shared accountability without compromising operational effectiveness or the strategic direction of Udao.

Hereby, UDAO Token holders are active stakeholders on the platform.

A Balanced and Inclusive Power Structure

Udao's governance design gives token holders real but balanced influence. Stakeholders are empowered to:

• Propose and vote on platform updates, protocol changes, and community initiatives
• Participate in fund allocation decisions and strategic partnerships
• Help define reward models and include platform feedbacks more efficiently

This setup strikes the right balance: enough control to attract serious token holders, while maintaining strategic agility and legal/operational clarity for Udao's ongoing platform development and long-term vision.

Through community-driven governance, they help shape, e.g.:

• Product development priorities
• Ecosystem growth initiatives
• Requested feature integrations

Governance Roles & Functional Structure

To maintain an effective governance process, Udao includes clearly defined roles and functional layers:

Members

Udao members play a vital role in decision-making, proposing ideas, initiatives, and improvements to the platform. Through quadratic voting, each member's voting power is determined by the degree of their preferences, promoting fairness and preventing undue influence. This democratic approach ensures that decisions best reflect the collective will of the Udao community.

Jurors

Jurors form part of the blockchain-based court system within Udao, impartially arbitrating disputes brought forward by community members. Through these roles, validators and jurors maintain the platform's integrity and trustworthiness.

Validators

Validators are responsible for reviewing and approving educational content created by instructors, ensuring its quality and accuracy. Learners, instructors, and organizations alike benefit from validated content.

Contribute-to-Earn: Incentives and Rewards Programs

To foster active and meaningful participation and long-term engagement, Udao implements tokenized rewards:

• Community members can earn tokens for moderating, contributing to the Skills Wiki, or promoting the platform (e.g. DAO governance)
• Learners and Talents earn UDAO tokens by completing learning milestones and getting skill-verified (e.g. Learn-to-earn).
• Educators receive rewards for publishing high-quality content or mentoring learners.

This "Contribute-to-Earn" model ensures that value creation is directly rewarded in a transparent, community-owned way.

Tokenomics and Distribution

The UDAO Token has a fixed total supply of 200,000,000 tokens, with the distribution of tokens divided among various stakeholders to ensure a fair and sustainable ecosystem.

In addition: A carefully designed vesting schedule has been implemented for different token allocations to ensure the long-term stability and growth of the Udao ecosystem.

The vesting schedule outlines the gradual release of tokens over a specified period, aligning with the platform's roadmap and milestones. This approach encourages responsible token distribution and prevents large token dumps that could negatively impact the market.

Crypto Market Impact

UDAO also aims to tack the 6 big issues in the Crypto universe, especially for utility tokens:

• Price volatility
• Low Liquidity
• End to End Regulation
• Scam and Frauds with prettified numbers and engagement
• Technological and Security Risks
• Market Manipulation by large players

By coupling the UDAO Token to its Business Model and having an inflow of value, Price volatility and Low Liquidity is tackled as a larger liquidity pool strengthens the price volatility. UDAO was emitted in Switzerland, which has one of the highest safeguards for crypto investors, while maintaining crypto friendly regulations for the project.

Udao has a strong focus on security with audited smart contracts and reduces complexity by starting as a single chain project on the polygon chain. In addition to the Tokenomics that has long vesting schedules to reduce the impact of large initial investors, Udao has introduced a "Tokenholder-Binding-Contract" that allows the leadership team and seed investors to sell only according to predefined rules, so that it does not affect the market price and not reduce the liquidity under a certain level.

Product Pricing and Monetization Strategy

Udao's monetization model is designed to maximize value creation while keeping access affordable for its users, the fuel that powers the Skills Economy. Our philosophy is simple: the more skilled and active the talent pool, the greater the value for organizations, educators, and the broader Udao ecosystem. Revenue is primarily generated when talent is effectively matched, upskilled, and deployed into the economy, ensuring our growth is directly tied to real-world economic impact.

This approach aligns with global trends in affordable upskilling, microlearning, and performance-based recruitment models, ensuring that talent can continuously improve without cost barriers, while organizations pay for premium access, insights, and value-added services.

Core Revenue Streams

1. Job Posts (Non-Active Sourcing)

Employers can post job roles with different visibility and analytics tiers. The access to the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is inclusive, which allows to give small and medium sized enterprises simple access to end-to-end recruiting.

2. Talent Manager (Active Sourcing)

A subscription-based recruitment suite enabling organizations to actively source and manage talents from different internal and external talent pools based on skills, access Applicant Tracking System (ATS) features, and use advanced search and outreach tools.

3. LMS Subscription Model (Udao Academy)

Organizations can subscribe to Udao's Learning Management System to run internal upskilling programs, track team progress, and analyze skill development. Fully integrated with the Skills Wiki and verification tools.

4. Commission Model for Learning Resources & Assessments

Udao earns 20–25% commission on each transaction involving courses, microlearning modules, skill services, and assessments. Even better margins can be earned by using the UDAO Token.

Additional Revenue Streams

• Gig Economy Module – Management and payment processing for freelance and project-based work, with transaction fees for completed engagements (complementary to job postings and Talent Manager services).
• B2B Marketplace – A platform for organizations to exchange services, projects, or consulting solutions, generating fees from successful matches.
• Promotions & Visibility Boosts – Sponsored job posts, featured educator content, and targeted talent promotion services.

Why This Model Works

• Talent-Friendly – Keeps core learning and participation affordable, even offering token incentives for skill growth and platform engagement.
• Value-Aligned – Revenue grows when talent is successfully matched to opportunities, creating a shared interest between Udao, organizations, and educators.
• Market-Ready – Supports the shift toward affordable microlearning and skills-first hiring, making Udao relevant for both emerging and mature job markets.

The Company: anywAI AG

Udao is the flagship product of anywAI AG, a Swiss-based company dedicated to leveraging technology to create value and enable independence.

anywAI AG is a Swiss company that specializes in software applications, AI, smart-contracts and other digital-asset technologies. Its core focus and flagship asset is Udao, a skills-ecosystem marketplace uniting learning and recruiting. Around this core, anywAI (or trusted partners and PPP centers of excellence) spin up new Projects, Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), that reuse the same tech stack and know-how. Each SPV funnels revenue-share or utility back to Udao, ensuring every satellite venture strengthens the Udao platform.

Founding Team

anywAI AG was founded in 2021 by Eren Kangeldi and Pascal Eltschinger. In the early days, we were supported by an exceptional team who laid the foundation for our growth. Especially Selim and Denis Kangeldi were part of our very first leadership team and contributed to shaping the company in its beginning. To honor their early and impactful contributions, anywAI includes Selim and Denis in our Founder Team.

The team are seasoned entrepreneurs and technology experts with significant experience in scaling software startups, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. Each member brings a wealth of knowledge crucial for strategic growth, technological innovation, and global expansion.

• Pascal (Chairman) – Extensive experience in building and scaling technology startups globally, providing strategic leadership and governance oversight.
• Eren (Vice Chairman) – Proven entrepreneurial expertise, supporting strategic development and global market expansion.
• Selim (CEO) – Seasoned executive skilled in driving operational excellence, partnership development, and market growth.
• Denis (CTO) – Expert in AI and blockchain technologies, responsible for leading technological innovations, platform architecture, and overall technology strategy.

Development Team

Our team brings together full-stack developers who architect and deliver features end-to-end, maintain APIs and data pipelines, and ensure reliability and performance.

Our blockchain engineers design and audit smart contracts, wallet integrations, and on-chain credentialing with a strong focus on security and compliance.

Our UI/UX designers translate product requirements into clear, accessible interfaces through research, prototyping, and iterative testing.

Complementing the product organization, marketing and growth specialists run integrated campaigns, and produce content across owned and paid channels to generate qualified demand, while community managers build and moderate our communities, coordinate programs and events, and channel user feedback into the roadmap.

Our administration and support teams underpin daily operations with responsive Tier-1/2 customer support, knowledge-base management, and data-driven process coordination across finance, legal, and HR—ensuring users and partners receive timely, high-quality assistance.

Advisory Board

The advisory board consists of distinguished experts and industry leaders who actively contribute strategic insights, industry connections, and specialized knowledge:

• Wolfgang Schmitz – Learning and development expert, supporting educational strategy.
• Monica Camuglia – Coaching and reskilling specialist, enhancing user engagement strategies.
• Nicole Hügli – Talent management expert, advising on talent acquisition and mobility.
• Stan Berteloot – Marketing strategist, shaping brand visibility and market presence.
• Bruno Seemann – Legal advisor, guiding regulatory compliance and governance frameworks.
• Tom Pfister – Marketing and event planning expert, driving community engagement.
• Renato Gunc – Business development leader, facilitating market expansion and partnership strategies.
• Paul Dolgopolov – Web3 marketing specialist, enhancing token market strategy and liquidity.
• Heiko Stahl – Future workplace expert, advising on modern talent development strategies.
• Markus Köhnlein – Social media strategist, optimizing community growth and engagement.
• Benjamin Wilding – Education leader, providing strategic guidance on educational content and certification programs.
• Robby Jeo – Web3 expert, contributing insights on launchpad strategies and token liquidity.

Partner-led Growth

Udao's market growth model is designed to scale rapidly through a partner-led structure, minimizing operational costs while maximizing reach, awareness, and adoption. By engaging local, vertical, and content-driven partners, Udao builds a self-reinforcing distribution network across both the demand and talent sides of the Skills Economy.

General Distribution Agent (GDA) – Core Driver, Country Growth

Exclusive per country, GDAs manage sales, marketing, and community building at scale. They receive 20–30% revenue share while enabling country-level expansion with minimal OPEX for Udao.

• Agreement Phase with France, Nigeria
• LOI Stage with Switzerland, Turkey
• Work in Progress (UAE, UK, Tunisia)

Distribution Agent (DA) – Vertical & Niche Penetration

Non-exclusive agents drive vertical or sub-regional penetration through lead generation, bundles, and promo codes. They earn 15% revenue share (5% for GDA) and ensure rapid adoption within specific niches.

• Agreement with Eurac
• Reseller and ESA Agreement with IBM
• Silver Partner of SAP

Branding & Media Partners – Awareness at Zero Cost

Media partnerships provide awareness for talents and job opportunities via job-post promotions and campaigns. They can receive up to 20% revenue share, helping Udao boost visibility and credibility at no direct cost.

• Agreement Phase with a Newspaper Magazine in Nigeria

Educator Partners (Academies) – Talent-Side Adoption

Educator partners act as global content providers, publishing courses and scaling talent-side adoption. They retain 75–80% of course revenues, while benefiting from Udao's Skills Graph and marketplace reach.

• Agreement with Udemy, TD Synnex Academy (IBM Learnings)

Market Snapshot

Hiring remains slow and expensive because skills are invisible, unverifiable, and changing monthly. Learning remains decoupled from market demand. Udao captures the market where these two flows meet: market driven skills demand → upskilling → verification → hiring—and converts it into faster time-to-shortlist, higher match quality, and lower cost per hire.

Market Opportunity Breakdown

The combined global EdTech and HR/Recruiting Service market presents a massive growth opportunity, exceeding $1 trillion, driven by strong double-digit annual growth rates.

Our integrated approach uniquely leverages user engagement from the learning marketplace to enhance recruiting quality, maximizing monetization potential across both sectors and positioning Udao ideally to capture substantial market share rapidly.

Udao is uniquely positioned to meet the growing demand for skilled employees due to being situated in one of today's largest and fastest growing economies.

Total Available Market (TAM): $1 Trillion+

The global market for EdTech, HR/Recruiting services, learning and talent platforms has recently surpassed $1 Trillion. This includes:

• $404B in EdTech with a CAGR of 16%
• $757B in HR/Recruiting services with a CAGR of 13%

Serviceable Available Market (SAM): $260 Billion

Udao addresses a $260 Billion serviceable market, targeting digital platforms and recruiting tech with a unified skills-first solution. We focus on:

• $160 Billion in learning platforms – Including LMS/LXP, MOOCs, Microlearning, and Bootcamps
• $100 Billion in recruiting tech and digital hiring platforms

Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM): $200 Million

Udao aims to capture $200 Million in value within the next 5 years with a market share of approximately 0.5% through focusing in regions such as:

• Western and Central Europe
• Northern Africa and West Africa

Market Dynamics

Udao's role as an EdTech and HR/Recruiting platform makes it uniquely positioned to address the increasing Talent/Skill Shortages that have been affecting all major tech companies. It also allows Udao to address the growing disconnect between learning and the job markets in wider jobs economy.

The Global Skills Gap

• Global Crisis: We have 1 billion+ people will need to be reskilled by 2030 [U.S. Department of Labor], while 87% of companies report facing skill gaps now or anticipate them shortly (McKinsey).
• Reskilling Necessity: By 2030, 50% of the workforce will require reskilling or upskilling (WEF).
• Economic Consequences: If unaddressed, the skills gap may lead to 85 million job vacancies and an estimated $8.5 trillion in lost global revenue by 2030 (InStride).
• Potential Economic Benefits: Closing the skills gap could add up to $6.5 trillion to global GDP by 2030 (WEF/PwC).

Disconnection Between Education and Job Markets

• Employer Concerns: 75% of employers believe that graduates lack necessary job-ready skills (LinkedIn/Hult/ManpowerGroup).
• Youth Underemployment: Youth employment globally dropped by 12% over two decades due to mismatched skills (UNICEF).
• Productivity Impact: Approximately 1.3 billion people globally are affected by educational misalignment, resulting in a productivity loss of 6% GDP annually (BCG).

Demand Signals and 2025 Validity Check

• AI acceleration increases role churn
• Static CV screening underperforms
• Productivity & cost pressure push organizations toward speed-to-shortlist and ROI-measurable tooling.
• Skills-based hiring continues to displace pedigree-based filters; verifiable micro-credentials reduce bias and mis-matches.
• Consolidation trend: Users prefer fewer applications and search for one-stop-shop, like if one platform that ties learning ↔ verification ↔ hiring to outcomes.

Competitive Landscape

EdTech

Learning is decoupled from live job demand

In the EdTech landscape, platforms like Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, and Codecademy dominate the centralized skill-building space, catering to professionals looking to upskill and grow. Similarly, Coursera has made a name for itself by offering knowledge-based courses rooted in academia.

Recruitment in this space remains a largely separate process, relying on traditional systems disconnected from learning.

Recruitment

Job Boards and ATS

• Have yet a strong reach but are weak in incorporating skills and skills understanding
• Limited to no incorporations of skills verifications
• Almost no value for talents to stay on the platforms
• Completely disconnected from learning

HR Tech / Recruit Tech

• Typically no guided learning and verified skills

Credential Networks

• Digital Badges exists, but not natively connected and integrated with learning and recruiting solutions.

Social Media

There is one main competitor that is connecting recruiting with social media: LinkedIn.

It combines professional networking with job listings, positioning itself at the intersection of employment and Social Media.

Differentiation

Where Udao is different:

• Udao has a two-sided market place that combined learning and recruiting, and thus has an integrated loop from learning to filling a job position. Today there are only isolated learning platforms and/or recruiting platforms, but there is no platform that combines both industries although they naturally belong together.
• Skills Engine that dynamically adapts to market trends and connects the learning and recruiting marketplace with the skills taxonomy
• Tokenized incentives for learning the skills the market demands.

Summary

Regional Market Breakdown

• North America: Leading market in EdTech and recruitment solutions, strong enterprise adoption, driven by corporate training and advanced recruitment platforms.
• Europe: Significant growth in corporate and lifelong learning, increasing digital recruitment integration, and government-backed education digitization initiatives.
• Asia-Pacific: Fastest growing region, driven by rapid internet adoption, large youth populations, and significant governmental and private investments in EdTech and digital recruitment.
• North & West Africa: Emerging market with rising mobile internet penetration, growing demand for upskilling, and increasing involvement from international NGOs and local governments in expanding digital education and employment access. Mobile-first workforce with strong fit for verifiable credentials and incentive-driven upskilling.

Market Opportunities for Udao

Near-term (0–12 months):

• AI-empowered Recruiting in IT/Engineering/Green Energy & Sales with Udao's Job Posts and Talent manager that focus on reducing Time-to-Shortlist and lift up Interview-Conversion.
• Assessment packs for 5–8 high-demand roles; monetize per-assessment and via bundles.

Mid-term (12–36 months):

• Skills-based LMS for existing recruiting customers ("land & expand").
• Token-discount motion to shift spend into UDAO and increase UDAO Benefit Layer.
• Smart Talent Pools (auto-match + outreach) to compress time-to-hire.
• Retention vesting (tokenized bonuses) to align post-hire incentives.

Long-term (36m+):

• Global Skills OS – public Skills Graph API, DID/reputation, company academies, and insights for governments/NGOs.
• Next Gen Digital Asset – While most platforms use blockchain as an accessory to their platform with only the goal of earning more profit, the UDAO Token offers real utility value and incentives. These features make it so that the UDAO Token is both an essential and fully integrated part of the Udao platform, thus turning it into a true Next Gen Digital Asset.