Vienna-based GoStudent, an edtech startup that provides one-to-one video-based online tutoring, announced on Tuesday that it has raised €300M in its Series D round of funding. The company has raised a total of more than €590M to date.
GoStudent reports that this latest round has made it the highest valued K12 edtech company in Europe with a valuation of €3B. This funding comes just seven months after GoStudent became Europe’s first edtech unicorn, raising a Series C round of €205M in June 2021.
Investors in this round
The round was led by new investor Prosus, an Amsterdam-based global consumer internet group that claims to be one of the largest technology investors in the world.
Fahd Beg, COO of Prosus edtech says, “GoStudent has built a highly scalable business offering a superb customer experience. The company is creating a leading global platform for K12 education and the speed at which they are growing is impressive. We are living through a time when technology is transforming education globally and the inspiring vision of founders like Felix and Gregor will reshape how students learn in the future.”
Besides, the round also saw participation from investors including Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tencent, Dragoneer, Left Lane Capital, and Coatue Management.
Funds to expansion
The proceeds from this round will enable GoStudent to expand its services internationally, expand its offerings through M&A, and increase market share in existing geographies.
Co-founder and CEO of GoStudent, Felix Ohswald, says, “Education has seen a whirlwind of change, from remote classrooms to increased academic ambitions, and we believe there is a big opportunity to transform how students learn all over the world by expanding access to quality education. We are thrilled to receive support from both new and existing investors as we continue to revolutionise education worldwide.”
To become the ‘world leader’ in the tutoring space, GoStudent says it will accelerate its global expansion to several new countries. The plan is to enter a minimum of six markets this year, including new regions such as the US, Asia-Pacific, and the MENA-Region.
The company will also grow and diversify its range of services through M&A. To enhance the learning experience of K12 students, GoStudent plans to acquire ‘best-of-breed’ K12 education services and products to create a streamlined learning experience. The platform has already acquired the all-in-one school communication app Fox Education in September 2021.
In terms of increased market share in existing geographies, GoStudent will further invest in existing regions with the goal of increasing penetration in areas where tutoring services are highly fragmented and traditionally offline.
“Our goal is to disrupt traditional perceptions of the tutoring industry by demonstrating to parents the advantages of choosing a carefully selected online tutor, in turn significantly improving the student learning experience,” adds Gregor Müller, co-founder and COO of GoStudent.
Online tutor provider
Founded in 2016 by Felix Ohswald and Gregor Müller, GoStudent aims to help students reach their full potential and replace traditional tutoring through online teaching. The startup offers a digital learning platform for online teaching and paid individual courses for all school subjects.
Through its platform, GoStudent provides paid, one-to-one, video-based tuition to primary, secondary, and college-aged students in more than 30 subjects, using a membership model. The platform employs more than 1,300 people and works with over 15,000+ tutors. Currently, GoStudent is serving customers in 22 countries and over 1.5 million tutoring sessions are booked each month.
In 2021, the company expanded to 16 countries, including Canada and Mexico, and opened 19 international office locations. Additionally, it has also grown its team by +1K employees and +10K tutors and plans to increase its team further by the end of 2022.
