Udemy files for U.S. IPO as remote learning shift drives revenue surge (updated)

Nerdy

05/10/2021 11:37

(Adds background on company)
    Oct 5 (Reuters) - Online learning platform Udemy Inc on
Tuesday filed regulatory paperwork for an initial public
offering (IPO) in the United States, revealing a surge in
revenue last year driven by the pandemic-led accelerated shift
toward remote learning.
    The San Francisco-based company's revenue grew 55.6% to
$429.9 million in 2020 from a year earlier, its filing showed.
Udemy incurred a net loss of $77.6 million over the same period.
    The company, which did not share the terms for its offering,
was valued at $3.3 billion during a financing round in November
last year. It is expected to go public at a much higher
valuation. 
    Udemy is the latest in a string of online education
companies looking to list their shares in New York, after
Coursera Inc  COUR.K  and Nerdy Inc  NRDY.K  went public earlier
this year. 
    As of June 30, about 42% of Fortune 100 companies used Udemy
Business (UB), the company's corporate learning service,
according to its filing. UB revenue more than doubled last year
as global business leaders increasingly require employees to
pick up new skills.
    Udemy, which provides over 183,000 courses in 75 languages
across more than 180 countries, launched a direct-to-consumer
subscription  earlier this year, an offering that is still in
beta testing mode.  
    With a roughly $200 billion market opportunity, Udemy, which
has more than 44 million learners on its platform, expects its
estimated addressable market to grow in multiples due to the
transition to online learning. 
    It competes with the likes of Pluralsight, Skillsoft Corp
 SKIL.N  and LinkedIn Learning in its corporate training
offering and with Coursera and edX in its consumer-facing
marketplace. 
    Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters for
the IPO, after which the company plans to list on the Nasdaq
under the symbol "UDMY."
    
    


 (Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil
D'Silva and Vinay Dwivedi)
 ((Sohini.Podder@thomsonreuters.com;))