Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses created by the founders of Udemy, altMBA, and Socratic, has announced $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Founded by Gagan Biyani, Wes Kao, and Shreyans Bhansali, Maven centralizes the suite of tools needed to create and run a cohort-based course so that instructors can focus on teaching.
“There are thousands of experts, creators, and practitioners around the world who have valuable knowledge to share but aren’t traditional professors,” said Gagan Biyani, CEO and co-founder of Maven. “We’re creating the university of the future, built around these 21st century professors. We couldn’t ask for a better partner than Andrew Chen and Andreessen Horowitz to join us on that journey.”
“Cohort-based courses are the next evolution of online learning,” said Wes Kao, co-founder of Maven. “They combine the convenience and accessibility of the internet with the hands-on learning of the best traditional education. While MOOCs have a 7-10% completion rate, cohort-based courses have a more than 75% completion rate, along with significantly higher student satisfaction. For students, it’s the best of both worlds.”
“The team at Maven is on to something huge with cohort-based courses: they represent a new monetization model for creators that is powerful for both the learners and the instructors,” said Andrew Chen, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who is joining the company’s board of directors. “We’re thrilled to work with the Maven team to help them realize this vision.”
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.