Bessemer Venture Partners has led a $9.5m financing, backed by Penguin Random House Holdings and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, for Flat World Education to expand its platform in partnership with Brandman University and offer BBA degree courses on mobile devices.
Flat World Education, a US-based education content and software company, has announced a development partnership with Brandman University, a non-profit university based in California, to expand Flat World’s platform and enable the university to offer an online, bachelor of business administration (BBA) degree delivered on a mobile device. In support of Flat World ’s expansion efforts, Bessemer Venture Partners led a $9.5m financing round in with participation by existing investors Valhalla Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners, book publisher Penguin Random House Holdings and Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based media group Bertelsmann.
Previously, in 2011, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), joined a $15m series B round for Flat World Knowledge, followed by a strategic investment by Randomn House.
Charles Bullock, provost at Brandman University, said: “We’re excited to pilot this platform with Flat World, as it enables us to offer students a truly innovative path to earning a bachelor’s degree that’s built for the digital age.”
James Rianhard, president of Flat World Education, said: “We have an entrepreneurial regulatory awakening, punctuated by the U.S. Department of Education actively seeking new models and encouraging experimental sites, and this is a major game changer. In response, many of our high-performing institutions of higher education are submitting new approaches to achieve more effective learning results at less cost.”
