Zirra Full Analysis

Methodology The Zirra Analysis Report is synthesized from many inputs, most notably the wisdom of the crowd, the output of aggregation and data collection technology, and the ratings and metrics produced by our proprietary algorithms. The report is built on external and public information on a company, and provides insights and conclusions obtained from that information. None of the opinions or insights belong to any Zirra employees. All of them are grounded in the integration of a variety of sources. Some statements may sound opinionated, but these are the composite of relevant inputs and crowd opinions, vetted against similar historical situations of comparable companies.

Fact We use no inside information. Information offered in the report that is usually non-public by nature, such as revenue figures, trade secrets, share structures and others, may be missing or somewhat inaccurate in the report. In some cases, such as with valuations, the numbers are generated by our algorithmic models. We do get help from industry experts. We factor their opinions into the algorithm as well as into the qualitative sections. Experts that speak on the record are usually accessible for further questions. Some experts choose to stay anonymous, and in these cases we can provide detailed logs of their contributions (that still maintain their anonymity). Mathematical figures such as ratings and valuations are based on our proprietary algorithms. The intended purpose is as a benchmark for your own process; we cannot “prove” validity of these outputs. In addition, we provide a lot of raw collected data. This is what our aggregation and collection technology has gathered and flagged as important for the company in question. We provide it as the factual basis for the synthesized statements in the report, and for you to do further analysis on if you wish. Finally, we do not recommend whether or not to invest. Our duty is to help you perform your job better. We pride ourselves on bringing transparency to our customers. Similarly, we encourage you to always be transparent, open, and candid with us.

Key Benefits

● A timeline overview depicting a company’s evolution, enabling a reader to get to know the respective company in a snapshot view.

● Leading questions you should ask the company. Most of these questions are derived by us asking experts for the questions they themselves ask.

● Similarly derived, key insights into possible risks & success factors.

Table of Contents

Background Product Executive Summary Key Findings Insights Company Ratings Benchmarked Metrics As a Matter of Fact Data Findings Survey Findings Expert Findings Market Landscape Company Details Company Evolution Investment History Workforce Management Team DNA Analysis Expert Opinions Anonymous Expert Expert Synopsis Suggested Questions to Ask Coursera Appendix A - Founder History Appendix B - Web Traffic Web Traffic Appendix C - Comparative Survey

Coursera offers learners a way to connect to the skills, for business, and knowledge, from prestigious universities, they crave in an easily digestible and navigable platform. The company currently has multiple revenue streams. For further information, please see Product Background

The concept of receiving education without physically being in a classroom has been around since before the radio era, with “distance learning,” where individuals would receive courses or lessons in the mail. What follows is a brief timeline of major events and milestones for higher education outside of the physical classroom.

Starting in the early 1920’s, Penn State University started offering classes through radio broadcasts. The University of Illinois created their own Intranet in 1960 where students could access course materials and listen to recorded lectures, nine years before the Internet was created by the Department of Defense. In 1965, The University of Wisconsin offered a telephone based education program. In 1968, Stanford University started their own television station called, “Stanford Instructional Education Network” for part-time engineering students to learn while not in school. In 1976, The University of Phoenix was founded to give people the option to take courses online for the first time. In 1984, the Electronic University Network (EUN) was founded, but it was not until 1992 did the EUN start collaborating with America Online to serve higher education purposes. Then in the early 1990’s, completely online curriculums and even PhD programs were being offered online. In 1994, CALCampus, formerly known as Computer Assisted Learning Center (CALC), began providing student with real-time instruction and interaction over the internet. Through the rest of the 90’s and up until 2007, technological advancements and innovation allowed for more flexibility for individuals to consume knowledge. In 2007, the first Massive Open Online Course provider, Advanced Learning Interactive System Online (ALISON), was created. In a 2010 survey, 83% of US-based CEOs and small business owners considered an online degree as credible as a traditional university degree. By 2014, 98% of public colleges and universities offer online educational programs. In the future, it is estimated that nearly all college student will be taking at least one online course. Online learning is now a viable educational choice and should continue to play a larger role for higher learning well into the future.

The online learning space is relatively broad, and there are several ways to classify the space. The first is by learning group, typically broken down by Early Childhood, K-12 (elementary, middle, and high school), Higher Education, Executive Education, Corporate Training, and Adult/Continuing Learning. The next way to classify is by who is buying or paying for the product. For example, student/learner/participant, teacher/instructor/facilitator, parents/guardians, team managers, or enterprise customers (HR teams, IT teams). Yet another way to classify is by use cases or product categories. These include Learning Management Systems (LMS), Online Learning Platforms, Microlearning and Mobile Learning Tools, Classroom Tools, Curriculum Tools, Assessment Engines, Portals and Aggregators, Online Program Management (OPM), Degree Programs, Content/Course Marketplaces, and Content Providers with platforms.

Founded in 2012 by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University, Coursera is an educational technology company offering massive open online courses (MOOC) in a wide range of subjects such as Physics, Engineering, Humanities, Biology, Social Sciences, Mathematics, Business, Computer Science, and Digital Marketing. Coursera partners with businesses and educational institutions to serve anybody who wishes to partake in additional learning. The platform is offered in a dozen languages and has a reported user base between 20-24 million students.

Coursera is currently focused on user acquisition and expanding their paying user base. While the platform was initially offered for free, Coursera now has multiple revenue sources including verified certification, specialization in areas of expertise, recruitment features, tutoring, licensing, sponsorships, and tuition fees.

Coursera now offers nearly 2,100 courses and has 150 partners in higher learning across 29 countries including very notable learning institutions in the U.S., such as Stanford University, Duke University, The University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, The University of Pennsylvania, Rice University, Brown University, and Yale University. Some notable international partners include Technion Israel Institute of Technology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Technische Universitat Munchen, among many other fine institutions.

Product

Coursera provides a platform where users can select and enroll in self-paced and timed classes from leading Universities around the world. Once the classes are completed, learners will receive verified certificates of completion, for a fee. Learners can also sign up for and earn specializations, or sequences of courses plus a capstone project, in a certain area of focus. Recently, Coursera has decided to offer online, admission required, university recognized degrees. Learners can access the platform on desktop/laptop and mobile though iOS and Android. In February 2017, Coursera launched a new search tool where learners can search directly for skills specific to what they want to achieve, and receive recommended content. Coursera has also recently partners with Google to offer courses in Data Engineering in the Google Cloud. Additional courses for Google Cloud will be focused on Machine Learning, App Development, and Analytics.

● There are 2,000 courses offered by Coursera. Most courses have the ability to be audited and taken for free. Learners who want certifications of completion pay fees ranging from between $29 - $99 per course. Learners can complete the courses in 4-6 weeks.

● There are over 160 specializations offered by Coursera ranging from between $39 - $79 per month. Learners can specialize in a new skill in 4-6 months.

● Coursera offers two different online degree programs. The degrees are priced between $15,000 - $25,000. The degrees require 1-3 years of study, and are fully recognized and accredited.

● Coursera has a community of over 25,000 people who translate courses and subtitles in online videos into over 65 different languages to allow access to higher education to more people, no matter what language they speak.

● Coursera also has a community of over 350 Mentors, who enhance the learning experience in over 70 courses by fostering discussions and supporting other learners.

● Coursera also provides financial aid to learners who cannot afford course fees, but who still want to complete the course.

Executive Summary Key Findings

● Coursera was founded in 2012 by two professors at Stanford University teaching Computer Science, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. It is likely the two came up with the idea while collaborating at Stanford.

● Both co-founders had no previous entrepreneurial experience before founding Coursera together. Both co-founders now have upper management roles at companies while concurrently serving on the Board of Directors at Coursera. Daphne Koller is the Chief Computing Officer at CalicoLabs, while Andrew Ng is the Chief Scientist at Baidu.

● As of the end of 2016, Coursera had enrolled over 23 million learners. The most five most popular courses of 2016 were, in order, Learning How to Learn (UC San Diego), Machine Learning (Stanford University), Programming for Everybody (University of Michigan), R Programming (Johns Hopkins University), and Speak English Professionally (Georgia Institute of Technology).

● Based on our survey, Computer or Data Science, Personal Development, and Business are the most popular subjects for online courses. Additionally, Law, Photography, Education, Engineering, English, and Mathematics also rank highly with our respondents.

● Additionally, our survey respondents said the most important factors in choosing an online education provider are: quality, pricing, the learning experience or course structure, and recognized certification, platforms that provide a particular required course, and recommendations from trusted peers.

● The online learning space, encompassing e-Learning platforms, is very comprehensive and segmented into multiple categories based on the age and development of the learner, in what dimension the buyer is, and the product category or technology being used.

● Traditionally e-Learning was compared to traditional learning and tried to extend their reach through different mediums via partnerships with leading universities. Today, however, the industry is transitioning to other territories such as corporate training.

● In 2015, it was estimated that roughly 8% of companies use MOOCs for corporate training, while another 7% consider to experiment with MOOCs. One of the major growth in the market is with corporate customers who have already integrated Coursera’s abilities. The demand for

services which Coursera is offering is expected to triple in the next two years, with 28% of companies using MOOCs.

● Geography plays an important role in the introduction to, and dissemination of, e-learning. In the more mature U.S. and European markets, there is a broad range of learning and business related solutions. In areas such as Africa and the Middle East, governments and government agencies often play crucial roles in directing students and employees in the public sector to e-learning solutions.

● MOOCs are a specialized type of marketplace for online courses. They are platforms designed to aggregate content from a variety of publishers, including universities and training providers. MOOCs specialize in cohort-based programs from universities.

● Many online learning companies have great added value in their ability to scale teaching large amounts of learners that would otherwise require time and space. The scalability of these platforms has been very beneficial to many organizations looking to educate and train employees in various settings.

● A major challenge of the online learning market is to reverse the dropout trend and low completion rates. The Industry sees a very high dropout rate of 93%. This factor could potentially lead to brand erosion.

● There is an increasing trend for online learning companies to partner with enterprise and legacy companies such as Google, AT&T, GE, IBM, Accenture, Credit Suisse, Mercedes Benz, Instagram, Shazam, and nVidia.

● Some of the most respected and prestigious school around the globe have partnered with e-learning companies to make their education services and courses available. The universities and colleges include The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Yale University, CalTech, The University of Pennsylvania, UC Berkeley, The University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, and many more.

● Most online learning companies monetize their products by selling paid courses, verified certificates, specialized certificate programs, online degrees, and subscription packages. The freemium model needs to be validated in terms of how companies effectively monetize as course development alone can range up to $300k.

● There appears to be a pain point in the cost of user acquisition as it is still not cost effective for most companies. This appears to be both on the single user side, as well as the enterprise side where new offerings and sales cycles struggle for attention.

● Some marketplaces also have pain points in terms of content ownership and intellectual property rights. Content and IP owners determine the marketing of courses, pricing, and even timing.

● It is believed that many MOOCs are in the midst, and even on the backend, of a “hype cycle.” After new technology was introduced to e-learning, many companies are now having to navigate declining enrollment and fewer users willing to pay for content.

● Over the past 18-month period, Coursera has seen 644.5 million non-unique visits to their website. This translates to an average of 35.81 million visits per month.

● According to Similarweb, Coursera.org’s global ranking is #884. This ranking is based on the traffic to the site compared to all other websites in the world. Coursera is also the #8 ranked website in the category of Career and Education.

● The top-3 channels which Coursera is seeing incoming traffic from are Direct (43.87% of traffic share), Referrals, (29.97% of traffic share), and Organic Search (12.41% of traffic share). Moreover, Coursera see 79.69% of traffic coming from desktop users, while the remaining 20.31% use the mobile web.

● The top-5 countries where Coursera see the most traffic are the United States (24.99%), India (8.25%), China (6.03%), United Kingdom (3.93%), and Mexico (3.35%).

● The companies that are most similar, and providing the most competitive risk, to Coursera are Udacity, edX, Udemy, Kahn Academy, and NovoEd.

● Additionally, there is competitive risk coming from similar online training programs as well as career focused bootcamps such as Codecademy, Skillshare, Udemy, Shaw Academy, and CanopyLAB.

● Coursera, along with its closest competitors, have raised over $489M in equity funding from very notable Venture Capital firms. These VC firms include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, New Enterprise Associates, Andreessen Horowitz, Insight Venture Partners, Learn Capital, Naspers, and Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments.

● It is difficult to accurately decipher how many full-time employees Coursera has at this time. However, Over the past 24-month period, Coursera’s total employee count has grown by

86%. Over the past 12 months, the employee count has grown by 53%, and over the past six-month period, the total employee count has grown by 19%. We can see that Coursera is consistently hiring and growing their employee base.

● There has been some notable M&A activity in the market. Pearson, in particular, has acquired 11 e-learning businesses between since the start of 2010.

● Coursera’s co-founder Daphne Koller stated in an interview with Forbes in 2013 that the company had no intention to be acquired by another education company. There have been no public reports or any official plans of going public that have been made official and therefore

we have not been able to find any information on the company's exit timeline.

Insights Company Ratings

All ratings are on a scale of 1 to 10, and are based on various parameters which reflect the company’s performance relative to other companies, using guidelines based on general trends in company trajectories derived from an inclusive company database.

Category Scores

Market Product

The Market rating pertains to the company’s existing and The Product rating pertains to the company’s product, potential market, based on indicators of the extent and service, or solution, based on indicators of the stage of its trajectory of its customer base, as well as of the company’s development, intellectual property, user base and competitive position. adoption.

Vision Team

The Vision rating pertains to the company’s overall or The Team rating pertains to the company’s founding or long-term vision, based on indicators of the mass appeal of lead team, based on indicators of the team members’ its offering and related market trends, as well as of its experience and expertise, as well as of the management product development. of the company’s growth and development.

Execution Momentum

The Execution rating pertains to the company’s execution of The Momentum rating pertains to the company’s gained its vision or mission, based on indicators of its growth and development, as well as of its user base and adoption. momentum, based on indicators of its growth and market trajectory as well as user adoption.

Benchmarked Metrics

Valuation Today Expected Valuation in 3-4 Years $700M-$800M $1.3B-$1.4B

Exit Window Opportunity Exit Probability 3-4 Years 30-40%

Benchmark Metrics Explained The estimations of current valuation, funding needs, chances of ROI, time to ROI, and value at ROI, are based on obvious data such as the company’s funding, size, and age, modified by the ratings and comprised parameters to reflect its relative performance.

As a Matter of Fact The following table summarizes how Coursera advertises itself VS. our open-source findings:

Subject Company Claims Our Report Found

Individuals seeking degrees, professional Same as advertised. Anybody interested in Addressable Space certificates. Coursera is also designed for learning a new topic, acquiring new skills, or Businesses and Governments earning an online degree

Udacity, edX, Udemy, The Minerva Project, No competitors are mentioned on EverFi, Codecademy, creativeLIVE, SkillShare, Competition Coursera’s website. Khan Academy, Coursehero, Iversity, Curiosity, Future Learn, Canvas Networks, NovoEd.

“anyone, anywhere can learn and earn Advantage - Coursera offers classes from some of the most credentials from the world’s top Stand Out Feature recognized Universities in the world universities.”

Individual Courses - $29-$99 Pricing Specializations - $39-$79/month Same as advertised Online Degrees - $15,000-$25,000

Customer base 24 million learners Reportedly 20-24 million learners

“The scale and quality that Coursera “Taking a Coursera course is a wonderful provides offers an extremely promising experience that I recommend wholeheartedly.” solution.” “Don’t expect your Coursera Certificate to get User / Customer “...the Coursera platform will allow us to you an interview at Google!” Reviews provide a breadth of high quality “Despite some limitations, Coursera offers the programs and a learning experience that most diverse and expansive catalog of online our employees can self-select into to drive courses available to self-starters seeking an their own personal development." inexpensive—or free—adult education.”

Data Findings

● In 2014, there were an estimated 2 billion potential learners around the world, 70% of which, reportedly, could not afford a traditional college degree.

● The global eLearning market, valued at $165B in 2015, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5% from 2016 to 2023, surpassing $240B. ● The self-paced sector of the industry predicted to maintain a similar growth rate and expand from $47.9B in 2015 to $50.4B in 2020.

● During this period, the MOOC market is forecasted to grow at a significantly faster pace than the overall industry (CAGR of 36%) and is expected to reach $8.50B by 2020 up from $1.83B, which would pose an important increase of the industry share.

● The market for online corporate training is expected to grow by 13% by the end of 2017. Reportedly, 77% of U.S.-based companies offer online corporate training for their employees

● Starting in September 2016, Coursera has seen an additional 195 employees join the company, according to LinkedIn. The average tenure of Coursera employees is 1.4 years. ● LinkedIn shows between 680 and 781 employees who claim to work at coursera. At present, the engineering department at Coursera accounts for 14% of the total employee headcount.

Survey Findings

We surveyed 160 U.S.-based men and women of all ages, residing in various geographical ages, about online education. Our findings are broken down this way:

● About half of respondents have taken online courses, with the majority of them certified. Our respondents are using online education for specializations and training rather than obtaining full degrees. Roughly one-quarter of respondents have engaged in obtaining a university recognized degree in this way. ● Of the areas or fields of study listed, the most engaged in, via online education, by respondents are Computer or Data Science and Personal Development (each by about one-third of respondents), followed by Business (about one-quarter of respondents). ○ The range of subjects and skills that our respondents have engaged in covers a wide range of disciplines, including: Law, Photography, Education, Engineering, English, Mathematics, Emergency Medicine, Healthcare, Health and Safety Compliance, Public Safety, Disaster Preparedness, Rescue, Wastewater Treatment, Appraisal Licensing, Real Estate, Sports, Beauty, Communication, and work related training. ● Despite the many online education platforms available, the most popular platform, with over one-third of respondents agreeing, is courseware offered directly by a university. Of the alternative platforms listed, Coursera is the 2nd most used among respondents, following Khan Academy. ○ Furthermore, nearly half of respondents claim to have used some other platform, including: BlackBoard, Creativelive, Kelby one, Distance CME, FEMA, RedVector, ASCE, UUS Army War College, AAMD, ASRT, The Learning Center, w3schools, selfhtml, DPS, Skillsoft, Masters dot com, programs run by individual organizations, and in-house training. ● Nearly two-thirds of respondents who have taken online courses show no distinct preference for a particular platform, while the remaining respondents express particular preferences. Most users seem to look for the for the courses/certifications they need, along with a good learning experience at an affordable price ○ Preferences expressed include: BlackBoard, Lynda, Coursera, Codecademy, Udemy, Udacity, Codecademy, Khan, Edx. Inquisitive, Futurelearn, Skillshare, Kaplan, Etudes, Canvas, and University courseware. ● The factors most important to respondents in choosing an online education provider are: quality, pricing, the learning experience or course structure, and recognized certification. Other factors mentioned included finding one that provides a particular required course, and recommendations from trusted peers.

● Among respondents who have not taken online courses, of the platforms listed, the ones that respondents are most familiar with are university courseware and Khan Academy, followed by Coursera. ○ As commented in the ‘Other’ responses, close to half of these respondents are not familiar with any such platform, while other particular platforms listed include: The Facility, Moodle, Blackboard, DPS, Etudes, Canvas. ● Most of the respondents who have not used an online education platform do not see themselves as highly likely to do so at some point. Only about 20% of these respondents say they are Quite or Very likely to do so.

Expert Findings

● There are challenges in the market with regard to determining the best approach to monetization, how to bring down the cost of user acquisition, and regulations on content control and intellectual property rights.

● Another challenge of the market is to break the 93% dropout rate that has been witness across the industry. This could potentially lead to brand erosion.

● There are many benefits to e-Learning vs. traditional learning and in-classroom experiences. Some examples include reduced costs, reduced travel, increased flexibility in terms of time, scalability for businesses and enterprises, and faster time-to-market.

● e-Learning offers the potential to learn across borders, to practice cross-cultural communication skills and problem-solving in real life situations facilitated by technology. A major potential of e-Learning is to reduce the cost of teaching and to solve the pain quite a lot of countries experience, which is a lack of qualified teachers.

● Some e-Learning platforms have partnered up with traditional universities and colleges, who are trying to change learning. This was a novel idea, but it ended up replicating the same kind of learning as we’ve been used to for many years, only in an online space, which has not made a significant impact.

● MOOCs are experiencing a “Gartner Hype Cycle.” MOOCs are a great way to get high quality content to many people, but inflated expectations have since crashed. MOOCs cannot replace university programs, but they were effective in introducing technology that can and has been used in online education programs.

● MOOCs are seeing a lot of competition from career-focused bootcamps offering counseling and placement services.

● Technology innovation in the e-Learning space is very easy. Technologies survive based on cost efficient business models, but there has been a recent decline in popularity with many of the EdTech players such as Pearson and Blackboard.

Market Landscape

Coursera falls into a group of the three leading MOOC providers (Udacity and edX), all of whom launched their services in 2012 and have been constantly compared against one another. Coursera’s user base is significantly larger than competitors, claiming over 24 million registered users against edX’s 5 million and Udacity’s 4 million. However, when looking at funding and workforce Udacity is ahead with $160M raised up to Series D and 796 employees, followed by Coursera with $146.1M (Series C) and 680 employees. Lastly, edX, with no external funding raised, has 280 employees. Coursera and edX have partnered with numerous universities to design its courses, with 150 and 90 partners respectively, while Udacity stopped doing so in order to move towards high-tech companies aiming to prepare learners for employment. While all three platforms offer free content, edX is the only one of them that doesn’t charge for any of the courses, monetizing its services by white-labeling its platform to other organizations instead. As the industry keeps growing, global institutions such as Google, Microsoft, and AT&T are entering the space by piloting MOOCs for corporate learning purposes; which could have a significant impact in the market in the near future.

Competitors

Potential to Become Direct Competition Intensity Indirect a Direct Competitor

Udacity High Udemy High

edX High Skillshare Medium

iversity High Codecademy Medium

NovoEd High Shaw Academy Medium

Khan Academy Medium CanopyLAB Medium

Market Mapping

Company Details

Founded January 2012

HQ Mountain View, California

Founders Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller

Employees ~680

Total Equity $146.1M in six rounds Funding

Product Stage Optimization

Business B2C → Freemium. Coursera has three revenue-generating strategies. Model

Makes Selling verified certificates to users of the platform, specialization in areas of Money by expertise, recruitment features, tutoring, licensing, sponsorships, and tuition fees.

Revenue Unknown. It was estimated Coursera had revenues between $8M-$12M in 2014.

Geographical Worldwide Market

Specialities Education, EdTech, MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses)

Competitive Set

Comparative Rating

Coursera Udacity edX

DNA Analysis

Mainland Mountain View, California Mountain View, California Cambridge, Massachusetts

Total Funding $146.1M $160M Undisclosed

Last Funding Oct. 27, 2015 Nov. 11, 2015 Unknown

Google, IBM, Stanford AT&T, Google, Facebook, MIT, Harvard University, UC Notable Partners University, Johns Hopkins Salesforce, Cloudera Berkeley University, Yale University

Number of Employees 680 on LinkedIn 934 on LinkedIn 252 on LinkedIn

354 133 117 R&D 52% 14% 46%

35 55 6 Sales 5% 6% 2%

39 59 18 VP/CXO (Politics) 5% 6% 7%

393 520 202 US Based (Proximity) 58% 55% 80%

Estimations

Position Leader Leader Leader

iversity NovoEd Khan Academy

DNA Analysis

Mainland Berlin, Germany San Francisco, California Palo Alto, California

Total Funding $7.3M $4.8M $10.2M

Last Funding 08/09/2016 06/02/2014 08/25/2016

L’Oreal, Hermes, Open Sanofi, Comcast, ING, Nestle, Stanford School of Medicine, Education Consortium, Notable Partners Stanford University, Wharton NASA, Dartmouth College, Amsterdam University of Business School 23andMe Applied Sciences

Number of Employees 24 36 345

6 12 75 R&D 25% 33% 22%

4 4 8 Sales 16.6% 11% 2%

3 5 26 VP/CXO (Politics) 12.5% 14% 7.5%

0 36 167 US Based (Proximity) 0% 100% 48%

Estimations

Position Challenger Challenger Challenger

Company Evolution

The following graphic is a visual representation of Coursera’s journey, marking important events such as their founding, completion of funding rounds, important news mentions, geographical expansion, important partnerships, and more.

Event Acquisition Funding Partnership Award Expansion Launch Appointments Growth

Development Customer Products Movement Study/Paper Promotion Collaboration Founding Controversy

Investment History

Coursera has raised money from very notable investors including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GSV Asset Management, International Finance Corporation, Learn Capital, Times Internet, EDB Investments, the corporate investment arm of Singapore’s Economic Development Board, with participation of Black River Ventures, and GSV Asset Management.The participation of EDBI in this last round is especially significant, as Asia is one of the regions with the highest growth rates in the market. Singapore aims to join the countries that are leading this recent growth trend (Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Bangladesh) by establishing the country as a learning hub with well integrated high-quality systems of education and training.

Management Team

Daphne Koller Andrew Ng Rick Levin Co-founder & Co-Chairman Co-founder & Co-Chairman CEO Concurrently: Member of the Board of Directors at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Member of the Board of Directors at American Express Member of the Board of Directors at C3 IoT

Lila Ibrahim Kurt Apen Tom Willerer Chief Operations Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Product Officer Formerly: Formerly: Formerly: VP Product Management & Design at Operating Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield VP Marketing, Disney Interactive at The Walt Coursera & Byers Disney Company Director of Product Management at GM Emerging Markets Platform Group at Senior Director of Marketing at eBay Facebook Intel Director of Marketing Strategy and Planning VP Product Innovation at Netflix Chief of Staff to the CEO & Chairman at Intel at eBay

Nikhil Sinha Deanna Raineri Julia Stiglitz Chief Business Officer VP Partnerships, Teaching & VP Enterprise & International Formerly: Learning Formerly: Formerly: Vice Chancellor at Shiv Nadar University Director of Business & Marketing Associate Provost for Education Innovation Development at Coursera Venture Partner at Adams Capital at the University of Illinois at Management Urbana-Champaign Business Development Manager Google Apps for Education at Google President & CEO at Silverskills Pvt. Ltd. (fka EMR) Program Director at Teach for America

Leah Belsky David Liu VP Global Enterprise General Counsel Development Formerly: Formerly: CEO at Causera SVP Operations at Kaltura CEO at QLubb, Inc. GM EMEA & VP Strategy at Kaltura Director of Legal at Google VP Education Business & Associate General Counsel at Kaltura

DNA Analysis Coursera Employee Count: ~680

This is a visual representation of the employees at Coursera, and their functions.

*Based on data from LinkedIn. Employees may appear listed in more than one department.

This is a visual representation of the number of hires Coursera has made since April 2015.

*Based on data from LinkedIn.

This is a visual representation of the current and past job openings at Coursera.

*Based on data from LinkedIn.

Expert Opinions Greg Bybee VP Marketing & Learning Products | NovoEd NovoEd is an education technology company which builds software that can replicates the experience of in-person workshops and seminars at scale. In his earlier career, Greg spent four months working as a Product Management Intern at Coursera.

General: The online learning space is quite broad, and there are several ways to slice and dice it. The first is by learner group, typically: ● Early Childhood ● K12 (often broken down by elementary, middle, and high school) ● Higher Education ● Executive Education ● Corporate Training ● Adult and Continuous Learning

The second dimension is who the buyer is: ● Student, learner, participant ● Teacher, instructor, facilitator ● Parent, guardians ● Team managers ● Enterprise (HR, IT, etc)

The third primary categorization (within technology) is by use case or product category. Some of the most common include: ● LMSes - Designed to manage in-person learning, learner data, and some online learning. Some major players include Blackboard, Instructure, Moodle, Saba, Cornerstone, and SAP. ● Online learning platforms - Designed to deliver online learning, with some LMS capabilities, but a better learning experience. Examples include NovoEd, Intrepid, and OpenEdX. ● Microlearning and Mobile Learning Tools - Platforms for short-form content distribution, primarily on mobile. Grovo is a major player here. ● Classroom tools - These vary dramatically by student population, but include behavior management, attendance taking, surveys/clickers, and more. ● Curriculum Tools - These are subject-matter specific tools, often used in conjunction with a particular curriculum. An example could be an app to measure literacy (e.g. Literator), support grammar teaching (NoRedInk), etc. ● Assessment Engines - Focused on summative assessments, such as quizzes, tests, and surveys. ● Portals and Aggregators - These platforms do not deliver learning directly, but rather act as internal marketplaces to aggregate internal and external content and courses. Examples include Degreed and Pathgather. ● Online Program Management (OPM) and Degree Programs - These are organizations who offer online degrees directly or partner with universities to offer online degrees. Examples include Apollo Group, ITT Educational Services, Minerva, 2U, Bisk, and Wiley. ● Content/Course Marketplaces - These are platforms designed to aggregate content from a variety of publishers, including universities and training providers. The most popular lately are MOOCs, which are really just a specialized type of these marketplaces that specialize in cohort-based programs from universities. What has happened over the past 4 years, though, is that these MOOC platforms have changed their business models and now more closely resemble their

forefathers. Examples include Udemy, Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Lynda.com, Pluralsight, OpenSesame, and others. ● Content Providers with Platforms - These are the content providers that have their own platform for delivering their own content. They aren’t marketplaces, since they only offer proprietary content. Examples include Khan Academy, Udacity, Treehouse, Codecademy, General Assembly, etc.

When I hear “eLearning Platform,” I think primarily about the first two categories. “eLearning” is not a term used frequently anymore, possibly because so much of learning is enhanced by technology that “elearning” is becoming all learning.

Challenges & Opportunities The biggest themes that lead to both challenges and opportunities include:

Monetization - All of these companies are looking for sustainable business models. Most got their early start offering free courses to consumers, but now they have taken on a number of approaches to monetize, including selling paid courses, offering “freemium” services (verified certificates, etc), offering bundled certificate programs (Specializations, MicroMasters, Nano Degrees), subscription packages, and offering the platform for private use.

Cost of User Acquisition - In many cases, although they have found effective revenue models, they haven’t found a way to acquire users cost effectively. In other words, for a $200 course, it might cost over $200 to acquire that user. In the enterprise side, there’s a similar challenge to drive awareness of new offerings and reduce sales cycles.

Content Control and IP Rights - The marketplaces, in particular, struggle with both ownership rights and the corresponding control desired. Marketplaces often have their hands tied by the content owners regarding how they market the course (e.g. cannot market alongside a competitor), pricing (e.g. no discounting), and even timings or curriculum. eLearning vs. Traditional Methods Generally, if you are comparing an online course to an in-person, classroom experience, there are a few key benefits:

Cost - Self-explanatory. Travel - Similar to cost, but also impacts time, environmental concerns, etc. As programs try to appeal to broader audiences, it becomes impossible to bring everyone together in person. The same is true for enterprises - companies are becoming more global, making in-person training costly. Scalability - Teaching 10,000 learners through in-person requires a lot of weeks and a lot of conference rooms, but can be done quickly online. Entire organizations and populations can be reached cost and time-effectively. Agility and Time to Market - In-person programs take a long time to roll out and are often hampered by academic calendars. They also require train-the-trainer sessions to scale out globally. Online makes it easy to deploy courses quickly and update. Flexibility - On-demand from wherever learners want, often available on mobile phones 24/7.

Competition This really depends on the specific areas. I wouldn’t actually say Khan Academy, NovoEd, or Coursera are competitors at all.

In the MOOC space, There are also a lot of international players that focus on other regions. Examples include FutureLearn (UK + Europe), Iversity (Germany), XuetangX (China), Rwaq (Saudi Arabia), etc. If you want to see a list of all the MOOC aggregators, visit https://class-central.com/providers for a comprehensive list.

In the K12 edtech space, NewSchools Venture Fund and Edsurge have collaborated on a great market report. Here’s the latest: https://edsurge.com/news/2016-12-21-learning-as-we-go-looking-back-on-the-edsurge-2016-state-of-edte ch-report.

I haven’t seen a great corporate learning landscape, but Josh Bersin has done some great trends pieces that cover the major players. Training Industry has one that is a good starting point: https://cdns3.trainingindustry.com/media/20819179/ctil-2016-web.pdf.

I’d be happy to provide more details in a follow-up meeting or survey.

The below companies are all online learning players, they are not all in the same market and don’t offer the same product. Udacity - Founded in 2012 by Stanford professor as a MOOC, but quickly changed business models. Now, Udacity sells individual courses directly to consumers, primarily to people looking for careers in digital fields, including data science, programming, and digital marketing. Most courses are designed internally by full time employees, though they have begun partnering with companies to develop courses. Udacity has consistently been one of the early innovators in business models, but their learning platform is limited. Coursera - One of the early MOOC platforms, Coursera partners with universities and other institutions to put lecture-style courses online. Coursera was founded by Stanford professors in 2012 as a for-profit company. Courses cover nearly all topics, but specialize in introductory university topics, such as psychology, sociology, biology, business, and computer science. While all courses are technically free, they offer a range of paid options for certificates and specializations. Coursera and Udacity now have very different approaches and course styles, but do compete for the same learners. Coursera is now exploring the enterprise business by looking at offering subscriptions to courses. EdX - Another early MOOC platform, EdX is a direct competitor of Coursera. EdX was founded by MIT and Harvard as a joint nonprofit initiative in 2012. EdX also offers OpenEdX, the open source platform behind EdX. Edx.org, then, is the MOOC aggregator where students can find university courses, but any institution could use OpenEdX for free to build their own platform. EdX is a direct competitor of Coursera, and is expanding into the corporate space as well. Udemy - Udemy was founded in 2009, so is one of the earlier online learning players, built as a modern competitor to Lynda.com. Unlike Lynda and other marketplaces that were highly controlled, Udemy allowed anyone to create and offer online courses at any price point. The result is that Udemy has one of the broadest catalogs of courses, but the quality varies significantly. Udemy’s advantage is that they are able to get courses on new topics faster than any other platform. Udemy also has the least advanced pedagogical model of all these players, as it is limited to lectures and quizzes, with limited options for course innovations. Udemy takes 50% of all course fees generated by its site, and they are now expanding into the corporate training market with their “Udemy for Business” program. While Udemy is exploring offering their platform alone, their primary corporate business model is offering enterprise-wide subscriptions to unlimited content, similar to Lynda.com. Khan Academy - Founded in 2007 as a YouTube channel with math videos, Khan Academy has maintained its primarily business in creating content for K12 students. While all content is free, Khan Academy is now monetizing through partnerships (e.g. Bank of America) and selling curricular tools to schools. Since Khan Academy focuses on K12 subjects, particularly math and science, they are not a direct competitor of any of the other players listed. Khan Academy courses are individual and self-paced, and they are working on improving their adaptive learning technologies to serve highly relevant content that is the right difficulty. NovoEd - Founded in 2013 as a social MOOC platform, NovoEd has since pivoted to a pure platform business. Now, NovoEd is the leading provider of online learning platforms to companies, universities, and other organizations offering training and education programs either within their organization or outside. NovoEd does compete with the OpenEdx platform, but otherwise is not a competitor of any of the other players mentioned.

Threats MOOCs are going through the usual Gartner Hype Cycle. They are a great way to get high quality content to many people, but there was a period of inflated expectations that has since crashed. MOOCs cannot replace university programs, but they introduced technology that will be used in online education programs.

The reality is that individuals in the United States do not spend much money on education outside of degree programs. The credential still matters a lot. That’s changing slowly, but the result is that MOOC providers are seeing declining enrollment and very low willingness to pay. That’s why they are trying to create new degree-like programs, but these have not yet been taken up in the market. They are also seeing a lot of competition from career-focused bootcamps that offer career counseling and placement services.

Advice for a startup in this field Would need to solve a real pain point that people are willing to pay for and develop a sustainable business model. Too many offerings solve acute problems that don’t have enough budget allocated to - either in companies, universities, or consumers’ pockets. If a startup is building a marketplace, then it must solve a real problem on both sides of the market. Consumers in the US are willing to pay for education that directly advances their career.

Advice for investors Make sure the company offers a “painkiller” and not “vitamin” - something that people need ASAP, not something that is nice to have. Make sure that there’s willingness to pay for the solution.

Technology innovation in the learning space is very easy - there’s a lot of stale players in the market - but they survive because they’ve established efficient cost models and have enough brand equity to drive demand cost effectively. But they are all cursed by the Innovator’s Dilemma, and we’re starting to see the decline of many of the edtech players, including Pearson and Blackboard.

Kim Lindgaard Jørgensen Head Of Business Development | CanopyLAB CanopyLAB.com is an elearning platform designed for global youth. Rooted in social sciences and humanities, the courses offered are a supplement to traditional schooling.

Challenges & Opportunities The key challenge within the field of eLearning is to break the 93% dropout rate that we witness across the industry. Back in late 2011, when eLearning was dubbed “the next big thing” with the potential make eLearning available to basically everyone, no one anticipated the problems we see today. First, it turned out that users found the courses boring and difficult. Boring because they were watching a pre-recorded video with no possibility to interact with others. Difficult because there was no one to consult when they met obstacles. As a result, most users still don’t finish the course they sign up for. The biggest challenges, as I see it, is to move from the idea that we can replicate the physical classroom to an understanding of e-Learning as something else - a space that needs to be designed based on the needs of the individual user (whether that user is an academic or have little educational background). The challenge is to meet those different needs, while using the resources of the provider(s) best.

The opportunities of e-Learning has been widely described. Going back to the “beginning” (2011), one of the main drivers of e-Learning platforms was to make learning available to everyone. While that has turned out to be a bigger challenge than anticipated, the opportunity to create eLearning experiences that meets the needs of different learner demographics is still one of the most exciting prospects. Maybe one platform won’t be able to facilitate such kind of learning, but with the eLearning landscape that’s building up, such as Khan Academy focusing on STEM education, CanopyLAB focusing on humanities and social sciences etc., the potential is very much there - if we are capable of catering to the needs of the individual rather than the masses.

Besides, eLearning has the potential to reduce cost of teaching and to solve a problem quite a lot of countries experience, a lack of qualified teachers. eLearning vs. Traditional Methods I think it’s important to compare eLearning platforms to physical schools, and compare the methods of learning in a virtual learning environment to the traditional methods of learning.

If you look at the first, e-Learning platforms make learning available at the exact time you want to learn and creates access for a group of learners that have not had the opportunities to learn from established and high profile universities before. These benefits have been some of the most talked about and discussed, but I think the most interesting is the second question, the methods. eLearning offers the potential to learn across borders, to practice cross-cultural communication skills and problem-solving in real life situations facilitated by technology, which enhances the learning process. It is important to distinguish between the physical and the virtual classroom. While the physical classroom most often only allows you to discuss with the same people every day, people who live in your area, who are from the same country (often) as you, virtual learning enables us to meet with people who are different from ourselves and through this interaction, we develop as learners and human beings. Not necessarily our STEM competencies, but human competencies, such as EQ and debate skills, skills such as communication, understanding, problem-solving etc. And through these meetings, we enable people to see the broader perspective of learning. In addition, there might not always be people with the same interest as you in your classroom, which is why meeting people from other areas through virtual learning is a way of getting exactly the learning experience you are interested in.

Competition CanopyLAB, Udacity, edX, Khan Academy, Coursera, and Udemy as well as Quipper are the main players in the field. Within different countries there are a number of smaller eLearning platforms all specializing in different areas, such as STEM.

Most of the above are collaborations between huge universities with a lot of money, obviously making them highly competitive in the market. While there is no doubt that all of them are working hard to make learning better, as I see it, Khan Academy has understood that learning is about the individual, and that the data available can be used to enhance the learning for everyone in their own way through blended learning experiences. They have chosen different partnerships, such as Disney Pixar, whereas most of the other’s work with traditional universities, which generally makes it difficult to change learning. For most of these, eLearning is the learning experiences that takes place at the top universities that they have partnered up with that is translated into an online course.

Threats I think right now we see a wave of eLearning platforms that have partnered up traditional universities, who are trying to change learning, but end up replicating the same kind of learning as we’ve been used to for many years, only in an online space. That has turned out to be unsuccessful and as a result, learners have dropped out and most of the initiatives have not been cost-effective.

On the other hand, you see a small group of e-Learning platforms taking the perspective of the user, trying to make high-quality learning available for the individual, rather than the masses. In addition, these have not partnered up with traditional universities, but like Khan Academy, with Disney Pixar. At CanopyLAB, we have partnered up with museum, cultural institutions, and NGO’s, who can offer a different kind of hands-on experiences than the theoretical and knowledge-based courses offered by Coursera etc.

Advice for a startup in this field Obviously, the eLearning industry is huge and a lot of money has been invested by large collaborations, such as Coursera and edX. Repeating the same kind of learning won’t make a successful impact - finding a niche, challenging the methods of online learning, and taking the perspective of the user will.

Advice for investors With all of their money, companies like Coursera & EdX, still haven’t managed to create learning that 1) engages and retains users, and 2) is cost-effective. Find a company that has chosen a new way of facilitating learning, which is centered on users. Obviously, there are much more to look out for from a company/investor perspective, but in terms of a company that will be successful in the market.