Coursera, a US-based service that offers online classes from universities, boosted a series C round featuring media conglomerate Times Group to $61.1m yesterday, after securing funding from Singaporean state-owned fund EDBI.
EDBI, the investment vehicle of Singapore’s economic development board, joined investors that provided $49.5m for the round’s first tranche, which closed in August this year.
The series C round is being led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and also includes Times Group subsidiary Times Internet, International Finance Corporation (IFC), which acts as the investment arm of the World Bank, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), Learn Capital and GSV Asset Management.
Founded in 2012, Coursera gives users access to some 1,400 online classes from more than 130 universities and educational institutions across the world, including Yale, University of Edinburgh, National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.
Coursera has also inked an agreement with Infocomm Development Authority, a statutory board of Singapore’s government that aims to develop and grow the country’s IT sector, through which Infocomm will support the fees of students taking Coursera’s data science specialisation course.
The series C round will fund the company’s further expansion into Asia, which already makes up more than a quarter of its audience. Coursera has secured approximately $146m in venture capital to date.
Higher education network Laureate Education contributed funds to Coursera’s $63m series B round in 2013, which also featured NEA, GSV, Learn Capital, IFC, KPCB, Yuri Milner, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology and three unnamed university investors.