Instructure Holdings

Founded in 2008 by two BYU graduate students, Brian Whitmer and Devlin Daley, Instructure's initial funding came from Mozy founder Josh Coates, who served as Instructure's CEO from 2010 to 2018 and chairman of the board through 2020, as well as from Epic Ventures.In December 2010, the Utah Education Network , which represents a number of Utah colleges and universities, announced that Instructure would be replacing Blackboard as their preferred learning management system supplier. By January 2013, Instructure's platform was in-use by more than 300 colleges, universities, and K-12 districts; the company's customer base had increased to 9 million users by the end of 2013.In February 2011, Instructure announced they were making their flagship product, Canvas, freely available under an Affero General Public License license as open-source software, a move which garnered press coverage due to its threat to then market leader Blackboard. As of 2020, while the core Canvas remains open-source, according to its GitHub frequently asked questions , some Canvas functions and add-ons are proprietary.In June 2013, Instructure secured $30 million in Series D Funding, bringing their lifetime funding total to $50 million. In February 2015, it raised another $40 million in Series E Funding, raising their lifetime funding total to $90 million. CEO Josh Coates described it as "a pre-IPO round." On November 13, 2015, the firm began trading as a publicly held company on the New York Stock Exchange.In 2016, Glassdoor named the firm #4 on its 'Best Places to Work' list. In 2018, the Salt Lake Tribune named it its #6 'Top Work Places' for large businesses.In December 2019, Instructure announced that Thoma Bravo would acquire the company for $2 billion. Thoma Bravo completed the acquisition of Instructure in March 2020.In June 2021, Instructure again filed for an Initial Public Offering.