Today, we’re extremely excited to announce that we’ve closed $43M in Series B funding from GSV Capital, International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, Laureate Education Inc., Learn Capital and Yuri Milner, as well as Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates, who participated in our Series A round of funding and are furthering their investment in this round as well.
Since we launched in April 2012, we’ve grown to offer around 400 courses from 83 educational institutions, and we recently hit the 4 million student mark! These investors, spanning the sectors of Internet technology, education technology, and emerging world markets, closely align with our efforts to continue building the technologies and global communities necessary to allow students around the world to learn without limits.
Moreover, as a social entrepreneurship company, we’re committed to offering free courses to benefit its global audience of learners, while also acknowledging the important role traditional institutions play in the future of education. All universities offering courses on Coursera receive a share of any revenue generated by Coursera’s business strategies, which include verified certificates through Signature Track, course adoption by institutions and companies, and additional upcoming programs.
What does this mean for students?
In the coming months, we aim to build the Coursera platform to offer more features, partner with more institutions, and continue to deliver the best online teaching and learning experiences. Here are some areas of focus:
• A suite of mobile apps to enable students to learn anywhere, on the go
• Opening up Coursera to the development of third party applications to allow the construction of a rich learning ecosystem for students and instructors
• International expansion through localization, translation, and distribution partnerships
• Development of collaborative learning environments, which will include group projects and private spaces for study groups
• Advancement of techniques for flipped classroom and mastery-based learning
• Continued expansion of university partnerships
• Expanded Signature Track offerings
• Increased support for student technical issues
What does this mean for company growth?
In order to do accomplish these goals stated above, we aim to double the size of our Coursera team! If you, or anyone you know, is interested in working with smart, creative, and passionate people to change the face of education, check out our open jobs! As always, we are deeply appreciative of and humbled by your support.
Come work with us!
