Online education companies have gotten a boost from the pandemic as people locked down at home have … [+]
Udemy, the online learning platform that was the subject of a June Forbes feature story, is seeking to raise money at a $3 billion valuation, according to a report in the tech publication The Information. Founded in San Francisco in 2010, Udemy was already one of the most highly valued education technology companies. Its last fundraise was in February at a $2 billion valuation.
Udemy spokesperson Romina Ederle said in an email, “we were surprised by the story” in The Information. She wouldn’t comment on its accuracy. The report is attributed to a person “familiar with the matter.” It says that Udemy has hired Goldman Sachs to work on the fundraising effort.
Online education companies have gotten a boost from the pandemic as people locked down at home have flocked to virtual learning. Weekly enrollments in Udemy classes more than quadrupled from February to late March, according to a report by the company.
Udemy’s vast offering of 150,000 courses includes sourdough bread baking and classes in guitar and piano playing. Tech skill courses like web design and the Python programming language are among the most popular. The classes are pre-recorded and most consist of short video lectures and online quizzes. Students have minimal contact with instructors who communicate through a Udemy message board. The courses confer no credit and they’re low priced, most at $10 or $20.
Udemy’s approach to instruction differs from competing online course providers like Coursera and LinkedIn Learning. It allows anyone to take a crack at becoming an instructor. By contrast, Coursera uses professors at prestigious schools like Stanford, and LinkedIn Learning heavily screens applicants and helps its instructors create courses. Udemy’s most popular sourdough baking instructor, Teresa Greenway, is a self-taught high school drop-out (she earned a GED) with 10 children who escaped an abusive marriage. Nearly 30,000 people have taken her courses.
Udemy splits course fees with instructors, who most often collect 50%. From March through May 2020, the company’s sales were double the total for the same period last year, CEO Gregg Coccari told Forbes in June. Two sources close to the company said revenue would likely exceed $400 million this year.
At its last funding round, Udemy raised $50 million from Benesse Holdings, the publicly-traded Tokyo-based education and senior care conglomerate that owns the Berlitz language schools. That deal brought its total capital raised to $200 million and vaulted Udemy’s valuation from a reported $710 million to $2 billion. With the pandemic spiking in the U.S., it appears likely that Udemy will secure additional financing.
