Skillshare Valuation, Growth & Funding (Overview)

One of the things that many people look into when they are looking up a company’s validity, and popularity to ensure they are as legitimate as they come is their valuation.

An understanding of where a company sits on the scale of success and growth can indicate a lot when you are trying to choose a company to use. 

So, what about Skillshare Valuation and how did they grow so fast? 

Skillshare is a website that allows students to learn online about a whole range of topics (not receiving certification at the end) through tutors and teachers who upload constantly updated online learning materials. 

Of course, as a student, you pay to use the platform, and Skillshare does take a cut of this, and this is how they earn their money.

But, understanding their value and success can help to paint a bigger picture of what you will be looking at if you should sign up with them. 

Skillshare Company Overview 

Skillshare was founded in 2010, as a private equity company. However, now after 12 years of being functional, they have gained 682 employees and have 31 investors by raising startup capital.

Their most recent deal sits at $5 million, as a latest funding stage VC. 

Overall, they describe themselves as an online global learning community platform that offers expertise and skills, enabling members to earn through their platform. 

The company offers classes and courses on a range of skill types, going from how to bake a cupcake to how to raise start-up capital in many various fields such as business, design, technology, crafts, and so on. 

This educational scheme helps to enable their members and students to better make use of their creative power and learn different skills in a new enhanced way. 

This is especially useful for people who may not otherwise have easy access to this type of learning material. 

If you want information about their company and how it is doing, it is notable that their own status is privately held with backing, and their status for financing is Spero Ventures Capital-backed. 

Their primary industry is Educational and Training Services, while their other industries are educational software programs. 

Skillshare Valuation & Funding History 

Sadly not a huge amount of Skillshare’s funding round and valuation history is available for the public eye to take a look at. But, we will tell you what we do know and have access to. 

We know that back in 2013 and 2014 they received 2 deals, one being Early Stage VC at $1 million, with $4.69 million raised to date.

Then the Early Stage VC (Series A2) was in 2014 which was at $6.1 million, with $10.8 million raised to date. 

Then their most recent would be April 2022, at $5 million for a Later Stage VC. 

What really seemed to raise their value up was 2022. Let’s look at this more below.

2020 Saw Rapid Growth

When we really think about it, it is not so surprising that 2020 saw rapid growth in value for Skillshare.

Since Skillshare is an available online learning platform, and 2020 saw most of us housebound, it became exceedingly popular. 

People wanted a place to learn online, and activities to kill the time. Many people took to learning new skills and where better to do this than Skillshare? 

Skillshare noted that with 2020 seeing a renewed focus on creativity and creative skills, this online learning company managed to raise a whopping $66 million! 

Their CEO, Matt Cooper noted that 2020 was a year of very rapid growth for Skillshare, but the pandemic was not entirely to thank for this. 2020 was a year in which, even prior to the pandemic, there were loads more people seeking online learning opportunities to better enrich their lives. 

The company decided to focus on its strength which had them relaunch the brand, in 2020.

This was done in an attempt to emphasize the richness of the creative content within Skillshare. 

They define creativity in a broad sense, emphasizing categories such as photography, illustration, writing, design, filmmaking, animation, etc. 

By mid-March, the use of Skillshare on a daily basis increased, especially when the pandemic led to people needing to stay at home. It also created more challenges for Skillshare Originals. 

However, a lot more people had a lot more time on their hands to spend learning and exploring new ideas. 

Growth & Valuation 

Now, while it may seem that the pandemic is the thing to thank for Skillshare’s recent success, numbers have not exactly dwindled since 2020. While 2020 did see an increase in usage, the pandemic made people sometimes realize remote activity is better and more ideal. 

Hence, why many people use Skillshare in stead of other physical learning forms. 

Skillshare received a lot of financing in mid-2020 and gained financing again in early 2022.

They also saw a very brisk upward arc in their employee count from March 2020k to now, with the curve slowly flattening into the Spring of 2022. 

We cannot say that Skillshare has peaked, but it has definitely reached one of the highest points in its existence so far. 

The rebranding helped them bring in more success and 2020, as a whole, brought in more interest in online learning such as their services. 

The company raised $42 million before 2020, was very positive in their cash flow for the first half of 2020, and then 2/3rd of members who signed up were coming from outside the US, with even more traffic coming in, building on their revenue. 

Overall

While Skillshare is far from the most successful company in existence, for an online learning platform their value and revenue have certainly seen droves of success in recent years. 

While some of this is attributed to the pandemic and home learning, people seem ever more interested in advancing their skills from their homes, and it has seen the value of the company skyrocket in recent years.