MasterClass, a US-based, celebrity-endorsed digital learning platform, has raised $15m in a series B round featuring media group Bloomberg, talent agency William Morris Endeavor and telecommunications company Novel Group.
Venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA) led the investor syndicate, which included Advancit Capital, Downey Ventures and individual investors Usher, Yan-David Erlich and Matthew Rutler.
The corporates invested through subsidiaries Bloomberg Beta, WME Ventures and Novel TMT Ventures.
MasterClass runs an online education platform that uses celebrity instructors including pop stars Usher and Christina Aguilera – Rutler’s wife – actors Kevin Spacey and Dustin Hoffman, tennis pro Serena Williams, author James Patterson, photographer Annie Leibowitz.
Each MasterClass consists of 10 to 25 lessons using video and audio, interactive exercises, learning materials and workbooks. The classes cost $90 and are available on any device.
The funding will be used to add more teachers, accelerate growth into new subjects, build the MasterClass team and improve the core technology.
The company revealed the series B funding on Tuesday, at the same time disclosing a $4.5m series A round led by Javelin Venture Partners and two seed rounds totalling $1.9m, both led by Harrison Metal.
Rick Yang, partner at NEA, is joining Javelin partner Alex Gurevich on the board of directors in conjunction with the round.