Online learning platform and EdTech startup Udemy files to go public at a $4 billion valuation

Over the past two decades, the cost of a 4-year college has skyrocketed causing it to go beyond the reach of millions of average Americans. Then in early 2000, a new movement started to address the rising cost of education and make education affordable to all. The movement is called MOOC  or Massive Open Online Courses. MOOCs are free online courses available for anyone to enroll. MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills.

Since then, dozens of MOOC platforms have been launched. Top among them are Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Udacity, Udemy, Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, and others. Just a few months, Udemy was voted best overall online MOOC platform by VeryWellFamily.

Udemy was founded in 2009 by Eren Bali, Gagan Biyani, and Oktay Caglar. The platform provides a repository where students can access well over 100,000 courses on every topic imaginable. Udemy has also grown exponentially since the pandemic began 18 months ago. Last year, Udemy said its online course enrollment surged 425% amid lockdowns.

With that success, Udemy is now filing to go public. Today, the San Francisco-based Udemy announced it is aiming for a valuation of up to $4 billion in its initial public offering in the United States.

Since its inception 12 years ago, Udemy has raised a total of $311.4 million in funding over 19 rounds. Its latest funding was raised on Sep 10, 2021, from a Secondary Market round. Udemy currently has over 155,000 online video courses with new additions published every month