- Udemy announced it has raised $50 million in funding from Benesse Holdings with a valuation of $2 billion
Udemy announced it has raised $50 million in funding from Benesse Holdings with a valuation of $2 billion. This round of funding follows a year of major growth for the company globally.
And Udemy celebrated its ten-year anniversary in January 2020 while marking over $350 million in lifetime payments to instructors sharing their knowledge on the global platform. Plus the company is planning to further invest in markets around the world and will expand its San Francisco headquarters as well as growing its offices in Denver, Colorado; Dublin, Ireland; Gurgaon, India; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and Ankara, Turkey.
Udemy is considered the world’s largest online learning destination that helps students, businesses, and governments gain the skills they need to compete in today’s economy. There are millions of students mastering new skills from 57,000 expert instructors teaching over 150,000 online courses in topics from programming and data science to leadership and team building.
Last year, Udemy also grew its Udemy for Business subscription-based corporate learning product internationally with a fully localized product experience and new course collections in Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, taught by native instructors. And in addition, Learning Paths were introduced thus enabling organizations to build personalized learning experiences to achieve specific outcomes like employee onboarding and career development.
Udemy for Business also reached the milestone of serving over 5,000 corporate customers globally. And customers choosing to upskill their employees with Udemy for Business include Adidas, Booking.com, Pinterest, Toyota, and Wipro, among others.
Key Quotes
“Benesse is an important strategic partner for Udemy, and this investment is a testament to the strength of our relationship and the opportunity ahead of us. Udemy is on a mission to improve lives through learning, and so is Benesse. 2020 will be a milestone year where we serve millions more students and enable thousands of businesses and governments to upskill their employees. This growth wouldn’t be possible without our expert instructors who partner with us every step of the way as we build this business.”
– Gregg Coccari, CEO of Udemy
“Access to the latest workplace skills is crucial for success everywhere, including Japan; and Udemy is the world’s largest marketplace enabling professional transformation. With this partnership, we envision a world where more people can continue to learn continuously throughout their lives. Udemy and Benesse are incredibly synergistic businesses. This investment is the next progression in our business relationship and demonstrates our confidence in what we can accomplish together.”
– Tamotsu Adachi, Representative Director, President, and CEO of Benesse Holdings Inc
