Udemy, the largest global marketplace for learning and teaching online, has announced that the company has raised $50 million at a $3.25 billion pre-money valuation in a Series F financing round. Leading global edtech and growth funds including Learn Capital participated in the funding round.
The company will use the current financing to grow its consumer and business product offerings to serve the world’s learners, organizations, and instructors.
“To succeed in today’s rapidly changing world requires new skills and a focus on continuous learning,” said Gregg Coccari, CEO of Udemy. “This year upended everything about how we live and work, and people everywhere turned to online learning to help them meet new challenges. We’re perfectly positioned to meet these demands and help drive success for individuals, businesses, and governments.”
“Built for the real world and enlisting the world’s most motivated experts to share their knowledge, Udemy has created an engine that propels individuals and businesses to succeed,” said Rob Hutter, Managing Partner at Learn Capital. “Our latest investment underscores our continued confidence in the company. We believe Udemy has the right platform and business architecture to dramatically extend its growth as individuals and companies recognize the power of lifelong learning to drive personal and corporate performance.”
With the pandemic, the future of work dramatically accelerated. Businesses underwent massive shifts in business operations overnight. Individuals and companies around the world turned to learning to help navigate a new world of dispersed workforces, constant change, and uncertain economic conditions.
As countries enacted stay-at-home advisories and national closures, course enrollments across the entire Udemy marketplace platform increased more than 425%, consumption across Udemy for Business surged 90%, and the company saw a 55% increase in course creation by instructors. To date, the company has seen over 400 million course enrollments globally.
In October, the company announced that Udemy for Business has surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) with notable customers like The Walt Disney Corporation, Apple, Unicef, PayPal, Accenture, Samsung, Unilever, Instacart, Survey Monkey, Okta, and others.
Last year, IDC found that for every dollar spent on Udemy for Business, organizations could realize an 869% return on investment in three years.
Udemy is privately held and headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Denver, Brazil, India, Ireland, and Turkey. Udemy investors include Insight Partners, Learn Capital, Prosus, Norwest Venture Partners, Stripes, and Benesse Holdings.
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC. served as sole placement agent in this round.
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