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Naspers invests $60 million in U.S. education technology startup

03 Jun 2016, 06:32 pm
Financial Nigeria
Naspers invests $60 million in U.S. education technology startup

News Highlight

- Udemy plans to use the new capital to continue its international expansion and to meet the global demand for online learning.

Naspers

Naspers, Africa’s largest company by market capitalization, has invested $60 million in Udemy, a San Francisco-based education technology firm. The Johannesburg-based company made the investment in Udemy through its Naspers Ventures division.

Naspers said on Thursday that Udemy plans to use the new capital to continue its international expansion, including growing its course contents and product offerings to meet the global demand for online learning.

Founded in 2010, Udemy is a global marketplace for learning and teaching online. More than 11 million students learn from education technology company’s extensive library of 40,000 courses taught by expert instructors in 80 different languages.

“Naspers is consistently looking to invest in markets where technology can make a significant impact,” said Larry Illg, Naspers Ventures CEO. “Udemy has built a technology platform that will transform education on a global scale and we are eager to help them with further expansion.’

“Their online learning marketplace offers courses on thousands of topics in dozens of languages and makes education for anyone, anywhere more accessible,” added Illg, who will join Udemy’s Board of Directors.

With a valuation of about $60 billion, Naspers is a global Internet and entertainment company with operations in 130 countries. The company has made investments in internet companies, including Tencent, a Chinese Internet giant; Konga, a Nigeria-based online retailer; and OLX, a classifieds website. Naspers also controls Multichoice, and other associated media brands such as Super Sport.


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