Edtech Platform Emeritus Successfully Raises $650 Million in Latest Funding Round
Emeritus, one of the leading ed-tech platforms has raised $650 million in funding. Silicon Valley venture capital company Accel and Softbank took charge of the latest funding round.
The Singapore-based company’s valuation has reached $3.2 billion after the last funding round.
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COVID-19 Impact on Education
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a considerable amount of changes in the education sector around the world.
Nearly 1.2 billion children from around the world were compelled to skip school and stay out of classrooms [1]. As a result, the adoption of e-learning and remote learning platforms has grown at a remarkable rate over the past year.
Investments in online learning and related services have also boomed due to this paradigm shift across the global education sector.
In fact, this is not SoftBank’s first investment in this sector. The company has invested in a South Korean AI-tutorial startup Riid Inc and Class Technologies Inc, a firm that develops tools that are used in teleconferencing applications.
There are many similarities between Edtech giant Coursera Inc and Emeritus. However, the size of the classes is smaller and much more interactive.
A majority of the company’s business lies in providing courses for alternative credentials. However, in recent years, a lot of universities are using the platform to offer partial or full-time degrees.
How are the Funds Going to be Utilized?
A major chunk of the latest funding will be used to build upon the recent acquisition of iD Tech. iD Tech is a platform that is used to teach technology and science to students and also create new courses to widen a company’s footprint.
iD Tech has successfully delivered courses to over 250,000 users in more than 80 countries.
Emeritus has a rich presence across the globe as it currently works with over 50 universities in China, India, United States, and SouthEast Asia. The company seems to be unfazed by China’s stance on online education and remains confident that e-learning will become the new normal globally.
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Source:
[1] Li. C and Lahni. F (2020) “The COVID-19 pandemic has changed education forever. This is how” World Economic Forum [online] Available from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-education-global-covid19-online-digital-learning/ [Accessed August 2021]
