Author: IBL News

IBL News | New York

Where will you retire when you finish your career in education?

There is a high chance your retirement place will be Florida — as long as you don’t choose Cancun or any other Latin American resort!

The U.S. News & World Report unveiled this month the 2021-2022 Best Places to Retire in the U.S. The list evaluates the country’s 150 most populous metropolitan areas based on how well they meet Americans’ expectations for retirement. Housing affordability, retiree tax rates, health care, and happiness scores are some of the criteria.

Florida metro areas captured most of the top 10 spots this year. Sarasota maintained the number 1 spot, followed by Naples, and Daytona Beach.

Emily Brandon, U.S. News Senior Editor for Retirement, explained that “after over a year of staying at home, many people are dreaming about a Florida beach retirement.”

IBL News | New York

Anthology reported this week it completed the previously announced merger with decades back pioneering Blackboard.

Private equity investment firm Veritas Capital (“Veritas”) will own the combined entity, which will operate under the name of Anthology. The Blackboard name will be part of the brand portfolio, according to the organization.

Two other equity firms Leeds Equity Partners (“Leeds”) and Providence Equity Partners LLC (“Providence”), Blackboard’s previous majority owner, will own minority stakes.

The company’s headquarters will be in Boca Raton, Florida. Blackboard’s office in Reston, Virginia, will be maintained.

Jim Milton will operate as Chairman and CEO. Mr. Milton said in a statement, “The combined broad set of capabilities of Anthology and Blackboard — including teaching and learning, student information systems, enterprise resource planning, community engagement, student success, and student engagement — will provide our clients with a full suite of enterprise-level products and services that enable institutions to not only focus on data-driven decisions but completely transform both student and institutional success.”

With Blackboard under its control, Anthology claims to own “the world’s largest modern edtech ecosystem and expanded portfolio of solutions,” while it will focus “on accelerating innovation.”

IBL News | New York

Western Governors University (WGU) announced this week a strategic partnership with the National Governors Association (NGA) to “build best practices in state policy that will result in greater access to higher education.”

The partnership is built upon the record of WGU online, which after 25 years, has produced 250,000 graduates and 120,000 enrolled students in all 50 states. Its competency-based education model, along with its management, has resulted in one of the success stories in American higher education in the last decades.

The idea, back in 1997, of a bipartisan group of 19 Governors was designed to serve learners in the post-industrial area. This focus on skills-based education has exploded in the last year as a result of the pandemic.

Through this partnership, WGU and NGA aim to provide a path forward for learners highlighting skill development.

“Our partnership with the NGA will help democratize education now and in the future,” said Scott Pulsipher, President at WGU.

Further elaborating on the skills ecosystem, on October 27-28 will take place the NGA’s State Strategies for Skills and Lifelong Learning Systems conference.

[Disclosure: IBL Education, the parent company of IBL News, serves as one of its customers WGU by developing an Open edX-based ecosystem]

IBL News | New York

The spending on education will reach at least $10 trillion by 2030, reflecting a massive expansion in technological solutions related to re-skilling and up-skilling in developed countries. This data, provided by HolonIQ, shows larger growth than the cloud services sector, which Allied Market Research predicts will reach $through 1.6 trillion by 2030.

“EdTech holds the potential to better shape our future workforce and it shows why the future of education is just as important as the future of work,” writes Gauthier Van Malderen, CEO at U.K.- based Perlego, on Crunchbase.

The next decade will see an additional 350 million post-secondary graduates and nearly 800 million more K12 graduates than today, according to HolonIQ.

Asia and Africa are the driving force behind the expansion. Experts say that the world needs to add 1.5 million teachers per year on average, approaching 100 million in total, to keep pace with the unprecedented changes ahead in education around the world.

According to UNICEF, during the pandemic, 83 percent of governments faced with the closure of schools chose to utilize online solutions to deliver education. However, while 50 percent of education time is digital, less than 5% of spending is on digital education tools, according to Brighteye Ventures.

“Now is the moment to rethink how education is delivered and build a hybrid model with greater accessibility, affordability, and inclusivity at its core,” said Gauthier Van Malderen. “As we enter the third academic year disrupted by the pandemic, we should be having the same conversations around a permanent change in education to improve access and outcomes for learners.”

IBL News | New York

Corporate collaborative SaaS platform 360Learning announced yesterday it raised $200 million. The funding round came from Sumeru, SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2, and Silver Lake Waterman. Existing investors include Bpifrance’s Large Venture fund, XAnge, and Educapital also participated in a previous funding round of $40 million.

The Paris-based company will use the capital infusion to hire more people, expand to new markets, and make some acquisitions.

360Learning lets content creators upload and mix different kinds of video and media, add questions, and work on a course with multiple people in the team.

Companies using this platform can build their own collection of courses and distribute it to all employees or a group of them specifically.

The company says that it uses artificial intelligence to identify courses that can be improved to fill gaps in information. Its AI tool also matches courses to employees.

The start-up claims to have 1,500 companies as clients, with LVMH, Aircall, Toyota, and Appen, among them.

They mostly use the platform for employee onboarding, software training, and various courses that help you get better at sales, leadership, and soft skills in general.

IBL News | New York

Online learning platform Udemy Inc. set terms for its initial public offering (IPO) this Wednesday, targeting a valuation of almost $4 billion, based on the 137.4 million shares expected to be outstanding after the deal closes.

This expected market price is a modest bump in worth for the company, last valued at $3.2 billion.

San Francisco-based Udemy, which plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol “UDMY”, will offer 14.5 million shares priced at $27 to $29 each, looking to raise up to $420.5 at the top of that range, according to a filing.

Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters for the offering in a syndicate of 11 banks.

The start-up, which provides over 183,000 courses in 75 languages to 44 million learners, is backed by Learn Capital, Insight Partners, and Norwest, among others.

It had a net loss of $29.4 million in the six months ended June 30, narrower than the loss of $52.5 million posted in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose to $250.6 million from $201.4 million.

In the last year, the market has seen the IPOs of several EdTech companies, such as Duolingo, Nerdy, PowerSchool, and Coursera.

• All of the Recent News About Udemy at IBL News
• Udemy S-1 Prospectus

IBL News | New York

After-school K-12 classes marketplace Outschool reached a valuation of 3 billion after obtaining funding of $110 million in Series D this month, according to the company. This whooping valuation took place just four months after hitting unicorn status.

Investor Tiger Global Management led the round. Additional participants included Lightspeed Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Reach Capital, Coatue, FundersClub, and SV Angel. In Api2021, Outschool raised $75 million in Series C.

With a workforce of 164 employees, Outschool is offering 140,000 virtual, small-group classes to students between the ages of 3 and 18, with 7,000 teachers today.

“The latest round of funding will be used to fuel our global expansion and ramp up new product offerings for schools and parents seeking alternatives to engage children in a love of learning,” said the company.

San Francisco- based Outschool has expanded its offering beyond the U.S. and Canada to countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the U.K.

Recently, the startup launched Outschool Pods based purely on demand from both teachers and families to have more opportunities for ongoing organized, academic classes in small group settings, disclosed Amir Nathoo, CEO of Outschool.

Classes on Outschool range from one-time classes to ongoing social groups, one-on-one tutoring, week-long camps, and ongoing courses. Classes are offered to learners ranging from age 3 to 18.

For families with a financial need, their nonprofit arm Outschool.org provides access to classes and camps. Outschool.org has donated over $3M to schools since its inception in April 2020.

IBL News | New York

IBM (NYSE: IBM)  announced yesterday a global plan to train around 30 million people by 2030 on technical skills needed for the jobs of tomorrow.

To achieve it, IBM said it will leverage its existing programs and career-building platforms, and partner with 170 academic, industry organizations, and NGOs.

Closing the global skills gap could add $11.5 trillion to global GDP by 2028, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). This organization states that “education and training systems need to keep pace with the new demands of labor markets that are continually challenged by technological disruption, demographic change, and the evolving nature of work.”