EdTech Platform Coursera Secures $64 Mn Series D From GSV Asset Management, Others

Edtech platform Coursera has raised $64 Mn Series D funding led by GSV Asset Management. Existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) and Learn Capital participated in the round. The Lampert Foundation also participated as a new investor.

“As the industry leader in online higher education, we have a massive opportunity ahead of us in preparing people, companies, and governments to respond to the changing nature of jobs and to take on the urgent challenges of workforce transformation,” said Rick Levin, Coursera’s CEO.

This takes the total fundraise of the company to $210.3 Mn till date. The recently raised funds will be utilised to fund efforts in its fast-growing enterprise business (Coursera for Business). Apart from this, the funds will be utilised to expand its master’s degree portfolio, and to accelerate product innovations.

As per an official statement the platform currently has over 26 Mn registered learners globally. It partners with 150 universities and education institutions to offer courses, specialisations, and degrees. The platform currently has 2,000 courses and 180 specialisations.

Coursera recently launched Coursera for Business—a platform to help companies manage workforce transformation at scale.The course currently has 50 companies around the world, including BCG, BNY Mellon, L’Oreal, Paypal, and Air France KLM.

The recent fundraise announcement comes at a time when in May 2017 Coursera appointed Raghav Gupta as its India Country Director. In his new role, Raghav will help in deepening Coursera’s investment in India with a focus on expanding the company’s workforce development initiatives and partnerships with the country’s top employers.

In August 2015, the platform raised a $49.5 Mn Series C funding round led by Times Internet, New Enterprise Associates, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, & International Finance Corporation.

Globally the education market is valued at $1.3 Tn with edtech products market valued at $40 Bn. Online education in India will witness 8x growth in the next five years, as per a recent report by Google, KPMG. This will have a significant impact on the edtech market that has a potential to touch $1.96 Bn by 2021 from where it stands now i.e. $247 Mn. India is poised to be the third-largest online market for education.

In 2016, Simplilearn, Toppr, BYJU’s, and EduPristine were able to raise beyond $10 Mn. Of these, BYJU’S funding was most significant as it raised over $50 Mn in two rounds of funding, which continued in 2017 with additional (undisclosed) funding from Verlinvest – a Belgium-based diversified investment holding company.

As per Inc42 DataLabs, by Q1 2017, funds amounting to $21.34 Mn (disclosed funds) have already been infused in the Indian edtech space across 11 deals. Other startups in this segment apart from Coursera include India-based Unacademy, US-based non-profit educational organisation Khan Academy, Udacity