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

[October 05, 2021]   (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 and Nerdy Inc 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 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)

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