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In 2007, Udemy founders Eren Bali and Oktay Caglar built a software for a live virtual classroom while living in Turkey. They saw potential in making the product free for everyone, and moved to Silicon Valley to found a company two years later. The site was launched by Bali, Oktay Caglar and Gagan Biyani in early 2010.In February 2010, the founders tried to raise venture capital funding, but the idea failed to impress investors and they were rejected 30 times, according to Gagan Biyani. In response to this, they bootstrapped the development of the product and launched Udemy—"The Academy of You"—in May 2010.Within a few months, 1,000 instructors had created about 2,000 courses, and Udemy had nearly 10,000 registered users. Based on this favorable market reaction, they decided to attempt another round of financing, and raised $1 million in venture funding by August.In October 2011, the company raised an additional $3 million in Series A funding led by Groupon investors Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell, as well as 500 Global and MHS Capital.In December 2012, the company raised $12 million in Series B funding led by Insight Venture Partners, as well as Lightbank Capital, MHS Capital and Learn Capital, bringing Udemy's total funding to $16 million.Oktay Caglar
On April 22, 2014, the Wall Street Journal's digital edition reported that , Chief Operating Officer of Udemy was named CEO, replacing Eren Bali.In May 2014, Udemy raised another $32 million in a Series C funding, led by Norwest Venture Partners, as well as Insight Venture Partners and MHS Capital.In June 2015, Udemy raised a $65 million Series D financing round, led by Stripes. Now Udemy joined another online learning house Skillsdox Inc of Canada to open up School of Skills in India.In June 2016, Udemy raised $60 million from Naspers Ventures as a follow-up to the $65 million Series D round of financing from June 2015.On February 5, 2019, Udemy announced that the board of the company appointed Gregg Coccari as its new chief executive officer.In February 2020, Udemy raised $50 million from long-time partner in Japan, Benesse Holdings, Inc. and announced $2 billion valuation.In November 2020, Udemy raised $50 million at a $3.25 billion valuation led by Tencent Holdings.On October 29, 2021, Udemy held their IPO in the US and is listed under the symbol UDMY.
Finances
Udemy has not yet generated a profit as is common among high-growth startups who invest heavily in their own growth. Udemy reported net losses of $69.7 million for 2019 and $77.6 million in net losses for 2020. By June 30, 2021, Udemy had an accumulated deficit of $407.9 million. In 2020, Udemy spent $192.6 million on marketing and advertising.
Branding
In 2021, Udemy changed its branding to the current look with an inverted purple chevron above the company's trademarked name in bolded lowercase letters and black coloration.Previously it had been, over time, styled in a number of different ways including a similar logo in bright green without any letter accents. One example of very early logo design used larger text and capitalized the U in 'Udemy' in addition to a large, stylized red U to the left side.
