Coursera, the US-based online education provider that counts media firm Times Group as an investor, completed a $64m series D round yesterday that, company sources told TechCrunch, valued it at about $800m.
GSV Asset Management, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers (KPCB) and Learn Capital took part in the round as existing investors and were joined by The Lampert Foundation, which donates money on behalf of Sears CEO Edward Lampert and his wife Kinga.
Coursera provides online education courses through partnerships with 150 higher education institutions, and has registered 26 million users. It launched a product aimed at governments and non-profit organisations in January 2017.
The company will spend the series D cash on product development, in particular its recently launched enterprise offering, Coursera for Business, and to grow its portfolio of masters degrees.
Rick Levin, chief executive of Coursera, said: “This round of funding enables us to continue innovating across our platform to deliver better learner outcomes, and to accelerate the momentum we have in our new initiatives – enterprise and degrees.”
Coursera said the round took its overall funding to $210.3m and it follows a series C round featuring Times Group’s online services subsidiary Times Internet that closed at $61.1m in late 2015 at a reported $500m valuation.
NEA led the series C, which also included KPCB, Learrn Capital, GSV Asset Management, Singaporean state-owned investment fund EDBI and the World Bank-controlled International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The company’s past investors include higher education network Laureate Education, which took part in its $63m series B round in 2013, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology and entrepreneur Yuri Milner.