Praxis Labs

Praxis Labs is an enterprise learning company that delivers immersive, practice-based training for people leaders. Its platform combines short on-demand simulations, longer perspective-taking immersive courses and paired group discussion guides, with AI-powered coaching that gives learners real-time, research-backed feedback while they practice high-stakes workplace conversations. Product offerings have been described as Pivotal Practice, aimed at helping managers improve critical human skills, and Pivotal Experiences, 15-30 minute perspective-taking simulations designed to build empathy and provide a practice environment for workplace scenarios.

The company originated as a justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) learning platform delivering research-backed virtual and mixed reality experiences. Its simulations placed employees in first-hand incidents of bias and discrimination in the workplace, either as the person encountering the behavior or as a bystander or complicit co-worker, allowing them to respond in the moment, reflect on their decisions, set commitments to apply behaviors at work and provide confidential feedback. An accompanying Pivotal Insights dashboard aggregated participant data to give client administrators reporting on equity and inclusion issues within their organization along with research-backed interventions.

Praxis Labs positions its platform for enterprise deployment: it states SOC-2 Type 2 certification, integrations with systems such as Workday, Docebo and Degreed, and certification as a minority-owned business by the National Minority Supplier Development Council. Its measurement approach emphasizes learner application data and observed behavior change rather than self-reported confidence.

Founding story

The company was conceived in the fall of 2018 at Stanford University, where Elise Smith and Heather Shen were completing master's programs. As women of color who had experienced and observed a lack of equity and inclusion at work, they saw an increasingly global and diverse workforce underserved by scalable, engaging and outcome-driven DEI learning. Before raising venture capital they interviewed more than 150 chief diversity officers, learning and development practitioners and immersive learning specialists, and self-funded through student grants and pitch competitions, acquiring paying clients for their first immersive learning module.

Business model

Praxis Labs sells its immersive learning platform to large enterprises as a workforce learning and development product. Its earlier virtual reality learning modules, running roughly 30 minutes, were packaged into 6-month and 12-month program packages for corporate clients, alongside an administrator-facing insights dashboard.

Subscription-style enterprise program packages; earlier offerings were sold as 6-month and 12-month learning programs built around immersive modules plus an analytics dashboard for client administrators.

Traction

Disclosed enterprise clients include eBay, Amazon, Google, Target, Etsy, ServiceNow, Uber and Zoom. The company reported client demand prior to institutional fundraising, having sold its first immersive learning module while the founders were still students, and its Series A in 2021 was described as oversubscribed.

Latest developments

In July 2025, Praxis Labs was reported to have been acquired by leadership coaching enterprise Torch, with the stated rationale of combining Torch's contextual coaching and organizational insights with Praxis Labs' AI coaching, practice and skill assessments. Co-founders Elise Smith and Heather Shen took roles at Torch as head of AI growth and head of AI product respectively, and the Praxis Labs team was incorporated into Torch.