“As people demand for lifelong learning outside the scope of traditional education, we are seeing a surge in subscriber growth”
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Edu Guide” (ID: EduZhiNan), author: Edu Guide.
Recently, MasterClass, an online course platform that focuses on social celebrities, has completed a new round of financing. This financing amount is as high as 225 million US dollars. The company’s latest valuation is US$2.75 billion, which has tripled from the same period last year when it was raised in May 2020.
The company plans to use the new funds to help start a new corporate business and expand its business internationally.
MasterClass provides courses taught by celebrities, athletes and business leaders. Course categories cover food, design and style, art and entertainment, writing, business, sports and games, home life, health, community and government. These courses provide diversified learning options for continuous learning for school students, professionals, and corporate employees. It can be said to be another major lifelong learning head platform besides Coursera and Udemy.
According to foreign media information, due to people trapped at home during the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the sales of platform courses have grown rapidly. The company’s CEO Davidrogier said the company’s growth was very strong, with growth rates of 10 times that of the same period last year in some weeks.
Rogier said: “People want to learn and bring back the joy of learning, so I think the epidemic period is just an accelerator.”
At the same time, it should be noted that as more and more people are vaccinated, the economies of many parts of the world are reopening, and investor interest in online education companies is cooling. The shares of Coursera and Chegg, two listed companies, have fallen 44% and 32%, respectively, from their 52-week highs.
MasterClass relies on the subscription model for revenue. The annual subscription fee is $180, allowing users unlimited access.
Rogier said that MasterClass is getting more and more attention from large and small companies in different industries. In response, some of the latest funds will be used to launch a new B2B business line.
“The company sees Masterclass as an employment benefit and also an LMD (Learning Management and Development) tool.”
These new funds will also be used for international expansion. Currently, all courses on the platform are only in English, And about one-third of MasterClass users are outside the United States. Next year, it plans to offer Spanish, French and German courses.
During the epidemic, users like to learn in many ways and have participated in a wide range of courses.
“During the epidemic, if you took Steph Curry’s class, the next one might be Steve Martin,” Or, you can start with a negotiation class with Chris Voss, and then find an Alicia Keys class to learn singing or writing song. “
As for the demand for lifelong learning to promote MasterClass’s business, David Rogier believes that:
“In the past few years, as people demand for lifelong learning outside the scope of traditional education, we have seen a surge in subscriber growth-Masterclass achieves this through our well-known lecturers, film production capabilities and unique capabilities And focus on restoring the joy of learning.”
Investor NEA partner manager Rick Yang said: “As an early investor in MasterClass, we are impressed with the company’s continuous innovation and rapid growth. At the same time, we always focus on finance and sustainability.” MasterClass With a rich content portfolio, it can provide world-class lecturers with unprecedented access rights, uniquely position them in the field of streaming media and increase customer loyalty. We are very happy to continue working with this defined category company because it unlocks new opportunities in this key area to drive the next stage of growth and success. “
Rogier declined to comment on future IPO plans, but admitted that “there are many options.”
MasterClass’s other new and old investors in this round of F round include 01 Advisors, Atomico, Bonnier, Cleo Capital, Dan Capital, NewView Capital, NextEquity Partners, Outlier Ventures, Powerhouse Capital, RPS Ventures, Ronald Lauder Family Office and UTA. MasterClass received a US$100 million investment in May last year, when it was valued at US$800 million. A total of 475 million U.S. dollars has been invested so faryuan.
See
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/masterclass-raises-225m-further-accelerate-160000267.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/13/masterclass-more-than-triples-valuation-in-one-year.html