AUSTRIAN GoStudent LANDS €300 MILLION AS IT DOUBLE DOWN ON ITS MISSION TO EMERGE LEADING GLOBAL EDUCATION PLATFORM
Austrian GoStudent and a known unicorn ed-tech platform have just landed €300 million in a round led by fresh investor Prosus which also saw the participation of Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank Vision Fund 2*, Dragoneer, Tencent, Left Lane Capital, and Coatue.
Meanwhile, the latest round of funds comes only seven months after the Vienna-based startup emerged as Europe’s first ed-tech unicorn in June 2021 for its one-to-one video-based online tutoring platform. Founded in 2016, the subject startup believed to have experienced hyper-growth in its short lifespan has secured a total of over €590 million and is now valued at a €3 billion valuation. Upon expansion, GoStudent was able to further its international reach in 2021, entering Canadian, Russian, and Mexican markets.
As part of the company’s 2021 growth, it opened 19 international office locations and has grown its team by over 1000 employees that also include more than 10,000 tutors in 12 months. Based on this, plans are underway to continue in this trajectory, with further growth plans for 2022. Equally, it was figured out that the number of tutoring sessions booked monthly grew tenfold: while GoStudent recorded 150,000 tutoring sessions booked per month last January, it surpassed the 1.5 million mark by the end of 2021.
The subject startup was founded by ‘Felix Ohswald’ (CEO) and ‘Gregor Müller’ (COO), which is at the meantime serving customers in 22 countries. Via its platform, GoStudent offers paid, one-to-one, video-based tutoring to primary, secondary, and college-aged students in 30+ subjects with the aid of a membership model.
Co-founder and CEO of GoStudent ‘Felix Ohswald’ said: “At GoStudent, our mission has stayed consistent since our founding: to unlock the potential of every student worldwide by enabling students to feel supported in their academic journey”. Adding that “Education has seen a whirlwind of change, from remote classrooms to increased academic ambitions, and we believe there is a big opportunity to transform how students learn all over the world by expanding access to quality education. We are thrilled to receive support from both new and existing investors as we continue to revolutionize education worldwide”.
The fresh fund is also viewed as one that will offer a generous boost towards GoStudent’s tri central and strategic pillars: international expansion, product expansion through M&A, and increased market share in existing geographical regions.
As the company seeks to expand services internationally, poised to achieve the goal of becoming a world leader in tutoring, Austrian GoStudent will continue to double down on global expansion, expanding to more new countries that demonstrate a significant market opportunity. As a result, it plans to enter six markets this year, this includes new regions such as the US, Asia-Pacific, and the MENA-Region.
Furthermore, it’s worth noting that the subject startup is poise to grow and diversify its range of services through M&A. And to enhance the learning experience of K12 students, GoStudent plans to acquire best-of-breed K12 education services and products in order to build a cohesive and streamlined learning experience. However, GoStudent will continue to invest in existing regions with the goal of increasing penetration in areas, notably where tutoring services are highly fragmented and traditionally offline.
“Our goal is to disrupt traditional perceptions of the tutoring industry by demonstrating to parents the advantages of choosing a carefully selected online tutor, in turn significantly improving the student learning experience”, GoStudent co-founder and COO ‘Gregor Müller’ said.
- What’s take over this fundraise?
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