Udemy, the largest global marketplace for learning and teaching online, has announced that it has raised $50 million at a $3.25 billion pre-money valuation in Series F financing.
According to a statement, the funds, which Udemy secured from Learn Capital, Winter Capital Partners (WCP), and others, will enable the company to continue to grow its consumer and business product offerings to serve the world’s learners, organizations, and instructors.
Udemy is the world’s largest online learning destination that helps individuals, businesses, and governments gain the skills they need to compete in today’s economy. Currently, 35 million students globally are mastering new skills from 57,000 expert instructors who collectively teach over 130,000 online courses in topics from programming and data science to leadership and team building. For companies, Udemy for Business offers an employee training and development platform with subscription access to 7,000 courses, learning analytics, as well as the ability to host and distribute their own content. Udemy for Government is designed to upskill workers and prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow.
Speaking about the company and how everything about how we live and work has changed this year, Gregg Coccari, CEO of Udemy, said in a statement,
“To succeed in today’s rapidly changing world requires new skills and a focus on continuous learning. 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.”
With Udemy, any individual or organization can find the right expert instructors to help them get the skills they need to stay ahead. Udemy instructors are real-world practitioners with a pulse on the latest technologies and business strategies, and learners choose from the largest selection of courses based on their preferences.
Commenting on the investment, Rob Hutter, Managing Partner at Learn Capital, said,
“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. 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.”
As countries enacted stay-at-home advisories and national closures, the statement said course enrolments across the entire Udemy marketplace platform has increased more than 425%, consumption across Udemy for Business has surged 90%, and the company has seen a 55% increase in course creation by instructors. Udemy has seen over 400 million course enrolments globally to date.
Udemy for Business was built for the future of work and designed to serve the next generation of workplace learners. 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.
According to a statement, Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC served as the sole placement agent in this Series F financing round. The San Francisco-headquartered company has last raised $50 million from long-time partner Benesse Holdings in February 2020.
