IBL News | New York
Paris, France-based educational platform OpenClassrooms.com raised $80 million in a Series C round.
The financing, led by Lumos Capital C, attracted also funding from GSV, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), and Salesforce Ventures. Existing investors General Atlantic and Bpifrance invested once again in the company.
The startup, which claims to host two million learners per month on its vocational training courses, said that it will use the funds for international expansion and product development.
OpenClassrooms’ courses, in French, English, and Spanish, include a mix of video resources, online reading, real-life projects, and individual mentoring sessions. Users can choose among 54 training programs and get a diploma. Some of them are French-state-recognized bachelor and master diplomas.
The company offers a guarantee that learners will find a job, mostly through career coaching, or they will receive their money back. In France, students can pay for OpenClassrooms courses using those public subsidies received to fund professional education.
In addition, the French company offers courses, especially related to apprenticeships, to 1,400 companies.
The platform still offers short free classes.
