Course Hero’s Path Forward
Announcing our Series C financing to build a rich and dynamic learning ecosystem for the evolving study needs of learners
Today, we announced that Course Hero Inc. has raised $380 million in Series C funding. This round of financing triples our valuation since our Series B in the fall of 2019, bringing it to $3.6 billion. We are humbled to have some of the most reputable investors in the industry believe in our vision. Without question, this is a significant milestone in Course Hero’s history, not only because of the raise, but mostly because we believe we are building an ecosystem to better help more and more learners and educators.
This investment will enable us to focus on two core areas — product innovation and acquiring mission and values aligned businesses and teams — with the goal of building a rich and dynamic learning ecosystem to meet the evolving range of study needs for today’s learners and support the future of learning.
Our Product Innovation
Since Course Hero was founded in 2006, the world around us has changed significantly, and the pace of change in every area of life has accelerated. The learning environment has had a difficult time keeping up with this pace, and as we saw with the pandemic, education and society as a whole experienced significant disruption as a result.
It’s important that we understand the changing needs of learners of all ages and acknowledge the many ways in which students are now learning. More than anything, it’s critical that we do this in partnership with educators. We are aligned in our goals, and we want to better support them and the generations to come.
Every day, we listen to learners and educators to better understand and inform our business decisions — whether through our own internal product innovation or through acquisition. We want to elevate and enrich the learning experience for learners and educators alike.
Our Acquisition Strategy
With the acquisitions of CliffsNotes, LitCharts, QuillBot, and Symbolab over the past year, we have taken the first steps toward building an enriched ecosystem that aims to meet and exceed every study need. Symbolab has helped us better support students in mathematics. QuillBot serves those who seek to improve and refine their writing, and LitCharts and CliffsNotes have strengthened our offerings in the areas of literature and reading comprehension.
These acquisitions have more than doubled our traffic within one year and also diversified our traffic outside of CourseHero.com by over 50%.
With this latest round of funding, we will be able to accelerate our acquisition plans to ensure we are providing learners and educators with a comprehensive suite of tools and services across a wide range of subject matters, geographic locations, grade levels, types of content, and more.
Our Values Driven Approach
In our 15-year history of building, we have consistently grown sustainably — not only because we take a diligent approach to managing our finances, but also because we are long-term oriented and practice a values-driven approach to operating and growing the business.
Course Hero is committed to five core values: customer-focused, collaborative, gritty, always learning, and responsible. These values are embedded in how we think and act. As we expand our ecosystem, we remain committed to investing in successful, mission-driven, and values-aligned entrepreneurs and businesses who share a strong sense of ambition, purpose, and impact.
It’s an exciting time for the education sector. There have never been as many compelling education companies experiencing significant scale in this market. It’s more important than ever that, as Course Hero invests in new businesses and teams, our diligence process is inclusive of our core values. We are committed to continue building a one-of-a-kind ecosystem of values-aligned education businesses that are focused on meeting and exceeding every study need for a broad range of learner types at any stage of their lives.
What’s Next?
Course Hero exists to help students graduate confident and prepared. And I’m confident that with this next chapter in our history, we are well on our way to achieving that and more.
With the combination of our product innovation and a strategic yet values-centered approach to acquisitions, we believe we are in a unique position to help anyone learn better, faster, and more affordably.
