Edtech and recruitment proceed to converge. London-based on-line diploma platform, FutureLearn, is taking £50 million (~$64.6M) from Australian-based on-line job matching group, Seek, in change for a 50 per cent stake within the enterprise — simply days after the identical group led an enormous Series E in U.S. on-line studying big Coursera.
U.Ok. distance studying veteran, the Open University — which had wholly owned the FutureLearn platform up til now — retains a 50 per cent stake within the enterprise following the Seek Group funding.
In a press launch saying the information, FutureLearn mentioned the funding values it at £100M ($129M) — some six years after the initiative was first introduced, with the OU bringing collectively a consortium of U.Ok. universities to assault the MOOCs/on-line studying area which was then being quickly expanded by U.S. edtech startups.
“Our partnership with Seek and the funding in FutureLearn will take our distinctive mission to make training open for all into new elements of the world. Education improves lives, communities and economies and is a really international product, with no tariffs on concepts,” mentioned OU vice chancellor Mary Kellett in an announcement on the funding.
The three way partnership may have “contractual arrangements” to guard its tutorial independence, instructing strategies and curriculum, the OU added — in an try and assuage issues about an (overly) commercially minded takeover of its fledgling digital training platform.
The first FutureLearn programs launched in fall 2013. Since then a cumulative whole of 9 million+ folks have signed as much as be taught by way of its platform — which now gives round 2,000 programs in all.
This contains quick programs; postgraduate diplomas and certificates; all the best way as much as absolutely on-line levels. (FutureLearn companions with six U.Ok. universities on the complete diploma programs at this stage.)
FutureLearn additionally has partnerships with administration consultancy agency Accenture; the British Council; the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development; learn-to-code basis Raspberry Pi; and Health Education England (a part of the UK’s National Health Service); and is concerned in U.Ok. government-backed initiatives to deal with expertise gaps — together with The Institute of Coding and the National Centre for Computing Education.
Last fall the Financial Times reported that the OU was in search of a £40M capital injection for FutureLearn to fund extra programs and higher compete with the dimensions of U.S. edtech giants — like Coursera and Lynda.com.
It’s not clear what number of extra programs FutureLearn plans so as to add with its new associate on board; a spokesperson advised us it’s not in a position to present a determine at this stage.
For somewhat comparative context, some 40M folks have taken on-line lessons by way of Coursera so far — with that platform presently providing some 3,200 programs, and partnering with the likes of Columbia University, Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan. While Coursera’s $103M in Series E reportedly valued its enterprise at nicely over a $1BN, with Seek approaching board as a strategic investor.
The shared investor is an attention-grabbing however maybe not stunning improvement given the completely different markets concerned, and the difficult of monetizing free-to-access programs with out huge scale — suggesting the Seek group, which is already nicely established throughout Australia, New Zealand, China, South East Asia, Brazil and Mexico — sees extra alternatives from strengthening regional on-line studying platform performs in Europe and the U.S., to develop the general on-line studying pipe and broaden adjoining cross-marketing choices in employment/job matching.
Last week, when its strategic funding in Coursera was introduced, the Seek group talked effusively about how edtech platforms enabling up-skilling and re-skilling are “aligned” with its employment-focused enterprise mission. (Or “our purpose of helping people live fulfilling working lives”, because it put it.)
The FutureLearn partnership…
