Online education platform Coursera targets over $4 billion valuation in U.S. IPO

As remote learning soared, Coursera's revenue rose 59% to $293.5 million in 2020

22.Mar.2021 17:40 BRT
UPDATED 17:48 BRT

Amid the pandemic, as remote learning soared, Coursera’s revenue rose 59% to $293.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020;
Coursera offers courses such as machine learning, cloud computing and language learning, with its platform used by more than 3,700 colleges and universities.

Online education provider Coursera Inc is aiming for a valuation of more than $4 billion in a U.S. initial public offering (IPO), a regulatory filing on Monday showed.

The company said it planned to offer around 14.66 million shares of its common stock in its IPO and that its selling shareholders were offering around 1.1 million shares, priced at between $30 and $33 apiece.

At the upper end of the price range, the company is looking to raise around $519 million.

The company said expected its shares to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “COUR.”

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and UBS Investment Bank are the lead underwriters for the offering.

Coursera offers courses such as machine learning, cloud computing and language learning, with its platform used by more than 3,700 colleges and universities, according to the company’s website. Amid the pandemic, as remote learning soared, Coursera’s revenue rose 59% to $293.5 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, the company said in a filing.

Coursera was founded in 2012 at Stanford University by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, who taught one of the most popular courses on campus and devised the platform so more people could have access to it. In less than two months, 100,000 people enrolled at their particular course. Since then, the company has raised more than $300 million in venture capital.

It functions as a “managed marketplace” for online learning, in the words of CEO Jeff Maggioncalda. Coursera establishes rules, guidelines and price ranges, and determines which institutions get to publish and what courses are offered on its platform. Revenues are split, on varying rates, between Coursera and content providers.

In an interview with LABS last year, Mario Chamorro, head of Latin America at Coursera, said that in Latin America, there are about 11.5 million registered learners, with 15 university partners, and more than 300 customers among companies and governments currently using Coursera to train and upskill employees and citizens. Mexico and Brazil are, respectively, the firm’s third and fifth largest markets.