The Prosus and Benesse-backed online skills learning marketplace priced its shares at the top of their range to raise approximately $421m.
US-based online education provider Udemy secured approximately $421m on Friday in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market that provided exits for internet group Prosus and remote learning service Benesse.
The company priced 14.5 million shares at the top of the IPO’s $27 to $29 range, and they closed at $27.50 on its first day of trading, equating to a $4.8bn market capitalisation.
Udemy runs an online platform which enables adult users to access courses which help them expand their skills. It increased revenue 24% year on year to approximately $251m in the first six months of 2021 and cut its net loss from $52.5m to $29.4m.
The offering followed $283m in funding, and Udemy’s earlier investors included Stripes Group, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), Insight Partners, Lightbank, MHS Capital, Learn Capital, 500 Startups and Signia Venture Partners.
Naspers Ventures, the subsidiary of media and e-commerce group Naspers that has since evolved into Prosus Ventures, joined NVP, Stripes and Insight Partners in the company’s series D round, which closed at $125m in 2016.
Benesse invested $50m in Udemy in February 2020 at a $2bn valuation, before investors including Learn Capital and Winter Capital added another $50m nine months later, through a series F round valuing it at $3.25bn.
Prosus vehicle MIH Edtech Investments is the owner of a 12.4% stake in the company which was diluted from 13.9%. Insight Partners holds 30.5% of the company post-IPO while NVP has 9% and Stripes 5%.
Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, Citigroup, BofA Securities, Jefferies and Truist Securities are book-running managers for the offering while KeyBanc Capital Markets, Piper Sandler, William Blair, Baird and Needham & Company are co-managers.
