Online education start-up, Udacity, founded by Google roboticist and Stanford Professor, Sebastian Thrun, is the latest ‘unicorn’ in the tech innovation space. Launched by Thrun at Stanford in 2012 as a free online course in artificial intelligence, Udacity raised $105m on its latest funding round giving it an estimated valuation of $1.1bn. The company has since expanded to offer courses for all levels from beginner through advanced level with more than 100,000 students enrolled worldwide. Udacity, which currently has 11,000 paying students, partners with companies such as Cisco, Google, and Facebook, rather than universities, to develop course work. Fortune reports that Udacity is growing 30% per month and believes its annual revenue is around $24m.
Online education start-up, Udacity, founded by Google roboticist and Stanford Professor, Sebastian Thrun, is the latest ‘unicorn’ in the tech innovation space. Launched by Thrun at Stanford in 2012 as a free online course in artificial intelligence, Udacity raised $105m on its latest funding round giving it an estimated valuation of $1.1bn. It was announced this week that investors, including Baillie Gifford and Google Ventures, and new partners Andreessen Horowitz, Drive Capital, and Charles River Ventures have committed total funding of $165m. Udacity, which currently has 11,000 paying students, partners with companies such as Cisco, Google, and Facebook, rather than universities, to develop course work. Fortune reports that Udacity is growing 30% per month and believes its annual revenue is around $24m.