Photo Credit: Coursera
Online learning giant Coursera recently announced it has raised $103 million in Series E funding led by SEEK Group. Existing investors Future Fund and NEA also participated in this funding round. According to TechCrunch, this funding round gave Coursera a valuation of more than $1 billion.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution, marked by advancements in automation and artificial intelligence, is dramatically reshaping our lives, businesses, and jobs. Coursera is at the forefront of preparing individuals, companies, and governments to meet that challenge head-on and turn this disruption into opportunity,” said Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. “The additional funding gives us the resources and flexibility to further expand internationally and to accelerate the development of a learning platform that currently serves 40 million learners, 1,800 businesses, and over 150 top universities.”
Back in June 2017, Coursera raised its Series D round. And its user base increased from 26 million to 40 million since then. And now there are 3,200 courses and 310 Specializations available on the platform that are becoming increasingly stackable — which enables learners to gain new skills and earn valuable credentials as they build a pathway towards a full degree.
Founded by Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, Coursera now offers a portfolio of 14 world-class degrees from top universities in the areas of business administration, data science, computer science, and public health. Earlier this year, Coursera and its top-ranked partners like Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan launched a health content vertical for addressing the shortage of skilled workers in the industry.
“This investment reflects our commitment to online education, which is enabling the up-skilling and re-skilling of people and is aligned to our purpose of helping people live fulfilling working lives,” added SEEK co-founder and CEO Andrew Bassat. “We have been watching Coursera for many years; they have a great team of people doing terrific work. We are pleased to come on board to partner with them in their next phase of growth.”
Coursera also has an enterprise offering called Coursera for Business — which continues to grow rapidly around the world with over 1,800 customers including the Abu Dhabi School of Government for upping the skills of 60,000 government employees.
