Singapore government gets in on Coursera’s series C to establish country as learning hub

Singapore’s EDBI, the corporate investment arm of the country’s Economic Development Board, has participated in Coursera’s series C round, it announced today. The US-based online open-access course provider raised US$49.5 million at the end of August, in a round led by US venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, one of Coursera’s original investors.

Also participating in the round were existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, GSV Asset Management, International Finance Corporation, and Learn Capital, as well as new investor Times Internet.

UPDATE, 29/10: EDBI has clarified that it joined other existing investors in this second leg of the round, bringing the series C funding to US$61.1 million. The amount EDBI has invested in Coursera has not been disclosed. Including this round, Coursera’s total funding so far is around US$146.1 million.

“EDBI is pleased to partner with Coursera in growing its presence in Singapore as well as the region, leveraging Singapore’s reputation as a leading knowledge hub with well integrated high-quality systems of education and training,” Chu Swee Yeok, CEO and president of EDBI, says in a statement.

Thirst for knowledge

The US company will put the funding toward expanding its range of content to address growing demand from around the world. Asia will be a key market to focus on since over a quarter of its users come from there, and it’s growing fast. The company will look to sourcing new, career-relevant content to expand its market share.

Coursera was founded in 2012 by Stanford computer scientists Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng. Andrew, who comes from Singapore himself, helped found the Google Brain project and currently serves as chief scientist of Baidu Research in Silicon Valley.

The online service has grown to include over 1,400 courses and 80 specializations in the form of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The content, provided by acclaimed universities around the world, is internationally available through the site.

Coursera has partnered with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) since 2013, offering over a dozen courses from both institutions. The company also works with Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), which helps fund the training fees for Singaporeans who successfully complete the Data Science Specialization offered by Johns Hopkins University.

According to research by Ambient Insight, the self-paced e-learning market has reached US$47.9 billion in 2015, and revenues are projected to reach US$50.4 billion by 2020. Among the territories with the highest growth rates in this area are nine Asian countries: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Bangladesh.

Do you use Coursera or other self-paced e-learning services? Do you think they’re valuable? Let us know in the comments.