US-based online coding education service Udacity raised $105m at a $1bn valuation yesterday, in a series D round led by media group Bertelsmann.
The round also included corporate venturing unit Google Ventures, as well as investment management firm Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures (CRV) and Drive Capital.
Founded in 2011, Udacity provides online courses in programming it calls Nanodegrees, and has enrolled more than 11,000 students across 168 countries in the past year. Chief operating officer Vish Makhijani said in a blog post yesterday the company had become profitable earlier this year.
Kay Krafft, CEO of Bertelsmann’s recently formed Education Group, will join Udacity’s board of directors as part of the deal. Bertelsmann Education Group was formed in September this year to bring together the firm’s education-focused assets.
Bertelsmann agreed last week to invest $230m in education technology provider HotChalk, becoming its largest shareholder in the process, and examined together, the two deals indicate Bertelsmann Education Group is planning to establish a sizeable presence in the sector.
The round follows $35m secured by Udacity in a Drive Capital-led series C round in September 2014 that also included Bertelsmann, human resources firm Recruit, media company Cox Enterprises, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV and Valor Capital.
Udacity had already secured $15m in series B funding grom Andreessen Horowitz, CRV and Steve Blank in 2012, after CRV had supplied the company with capital at series A stage.