Udacity Secures $15 Million in Series B Led by Andreessen Horowitz

Peter Levine Joins the Board; Funding to be used to hire talent and further scale interactive learning environment and analytics

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Udacity, a company on a mission to democratize education, today announced that it raised $15 million in Series B funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, together with existing investors Charles River Ventures and Steve Blank. The new round brings the online education company’s total funds raised in the past year to $21.1 million. The company offers free online courses in Computer Science, Mathematics, General Sciences, Programming and Entrepreneurship, and has over 753,000 students signed up since its launch in January.

“We are extremely excited to have Andreessen Horowitz on board. We believe we can materially change the lives of millions of students in the world, and we are excited to do so with a world-class team of investors.”

Peter Levine, partner at Andreessen Horowitz, has also joined the board. As Levine states, “We are excited by the mission of Udacity and its unique ‘learning by doing’ experience for students. We see a lot of interest from educators and employers in the strong student outcomes that are demonstrated through interactive quizzes, projects and the active feedback loop students receive. As a board member, I’m looking forward to working with a talented team and a founder who has been behind such innovations as Google’s driverless car, Google Glasses and StreetView.”

Learn more about Udacity on Peter’s blog: Software Eats Education - An Audacious Undertaking.

Udacity Founder and CEO Sebastian Thrun adds, “We are extremely excited to have Andreessen Horowitz on board. We believe we can materially change the lives of millions of students in the world, and we are excited to do so with a world-class team of investors.”

The funding will be used to further build out interactive course architecture, including adding new environments for programming and scaling course and student analytics. Students can learn anytime, anywhere, and at their own pace, and revenue is generated by employers seeking talent as well as through proctored testing for students who want verifiable certification. Udacity now also offers courses sponsored and developed together with corporations to teach skills and knowledge relevant in high-tech careers.

About Udacity

Udacity's mission is to bring accessible, engaging, and effective higher education to the world. We believe that higher education is a basic human right, and we seek to empower our students to develop their skills in order to advance their careers. For job opportunities: udacity.com/careers.

About Andreessen Horowitz

Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm that provides seed, venture and growth-stage funding to the best new technology companies. Founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz helps entrepreneurs become successful CEOs and build important and enduring companies. Its investing partners are Marc Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, John O'Farrell, Scott Weiss, Jeff Jordan and Peter Levine, all widely recognized experts in the creation, scaling and operation of high growth technology companies. The firm has $2.7 billion under management across three funds. Among its 150 investments are Airbnb, Apptio, Box, Fab, Facebook, Foursquare, GitHub, Jawbone, Lytro, Pinterest, Silver Tail Systems and Twitter. The firm was established in June 2009 and is located in Menlo Park, California. www.a16z.com