Coursera S-1 Breakdown
Company Overview
Coursera is a leading digital education company providing online courses and training to learners around the world. The company filed for an IPO on March 5th, 2021 with Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter and started trading on March 31st, 2021 under the ticker “COUR” on the New York Stock Exchange. The IPO raised $519m through the issuance of $15.7 million new shares priced at $33 a share and an implied valuation of $4.3 billion. Today, the company trades at ~$5.0 billion market cap and ~13x NTM consensus revenue.
Coursera’s mission is to “provide universal access to world-class learning so that anyone, anywhere has the power to transform their life through learning.” The company does this by delivering digital content created by partner institutions to learners globally via their online platform. They believe that “online learning will be the primary means of meeting the urgent global demand for emerging skills.” The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated the shift to online learning, as shown by Coursera’s strong 2020 registered learner growth from 46 to 77 million learners globally and revenue growth from $184 to $294 million. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, CA and has 779 employees.
Like Lemonade, Coursera is incorporated as a Delaware public benefit corporation. This means Coursera directors must manage the company to promote both stockholder interest as well as the public benefit identified in the company’s incorporation documents. The company’s stated public benefit is “to provide global access to flexible and affordable high-quality education that supports personal development, career advancement, and economic opportunity.” Additionally, it is a Certified B Corp, meaning it has been certified by B Labs, an independent nonprofit organization, for “meeting rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.”
The rest of the post is too long for Substack - you can continue reading here