Udacity

Edtech / online learningUSA

New to Unitard

🤝 Acquired

Peak $1 BillionToday

~-98%

from peak

🦄
Became a unicorn
Nov 2015
📈
Peak valuation
$1 Billion ’15
💔
Became a Unitard
2023
💸
Last valuation
~$20M

Current status

Acquired by Accenture (terms not disclosed), closed May 20, 2024; folded into Accenture LearnVantage

The rise & fall

9 moments · 2011–2024

The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.

Jun 2011

Sebastian Thrun, David Stavens and Mike Sokolsky found Udacity

The Mountain View company grew out of free online courses; in June 2014 it launched paid 'Nanodegree' credentials with AT&T, aimed at entry-level tech jobs.

Wikipedia

Nov 11 ’15

The peak: $105M Series D at $1B led by Bertelsmann$1B

Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective and Google Ventures joined; Andreessen Horowitz, CRV and Drive Capital returned. About 11,000 students were enrolled in Nanodegrees across 168 countries.

TechCrunch

Nov 28 ’18

CEO departs; Thrun returns and cuts 125 jobs

After CEO Vishal Makhijani left in October, Thrun took back day-to-day control and cut staff in the US and Brazil, leaving about 330 employees, per VentureBeat.

TechCrunch

Jun 30 ’23

upGrad reported weighing a deal near $100–120M

The Economic Times reported India's upGrad was looking at Udacity at about $100-120M, after an earlier suitor passed at about $200M. upGrad denied it, and no deal followed.

Inc42

Sep 30 ’23

Fund mark on Udacity common falls to $1.88 a share

The Private Shares Fund cut its mark on 448,075 Udacity common shares from $4.86 to $1.88, about 71% below its December 2021 mark of $6.56.

SEC NPORT-P

2018–23

From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2018–23

Staff Glassdoor ratings drop to about 3.0 in 2019 as employees describe repeated layoffs and shifting strategy, complaints that return in 2023; contract mentors and reviewers report repeated pay-rate cuts.

Mar 5 ’24

Accenture agrees to buy Udacity — joins the Unitard Club 💔

The deal, with terms not disclosed, brought Udacity's 230+ staff into Accenture LearnVantage, a training unit Accenture launched the same day with a $1B, three-year budget.

Accenture

May 20 ’24

Accenture completes the acquisition

Accenture said the purchase was complete and added more than 230 people to LearnVantage. It did not disclose the price.

Accenture

Jun 30 ’24

Fund marks Udacity common at $0.11, ~98% below its 2021 mark

After the deal closed, The Private Shares Fund valued its 448,075 Udacity common shares at $49,288, or $0.11 each, against $6.56 at December 31, 2021.

SEC NPORT-P

💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.

How it happened

Udacity is the Mountain View online learning company that Stanford professor Sebastian Thrun founded in June 2011 with David Stavens and Mike Sokolsky, later known for paid tech 'Nanodegrees'. In November 2015 a $105M Series D led by Bertelsmann valued it at $1B post-money.

The company later retrenched: its CEO left in October 2018, and Thrun returned and cut about 125 jobs that November. In June 2023 the Economic Times reported that upGrad was weighing a deal valuing Udacity at about $100M to $120M.

Accenture announced on March 5, 2024 that it would buy the company, without disclosing terms, and closed the deal on May 20, 2024. SEC filings show The Private Shares Fund then marked its Udacity common shares at $0.11, about 98% below its December 2021 mark.

Source: TechCrunch (Nov 11, 2015): $105M Series D led by Bertelsmann at a $1B valuation, with Baillie Gifford, Emerson Collective and GV new, a16z, CRV and Drive Capital returning; Bertelsmann release (Nov 11, 2015): $1.0B post-money. TechCrunch (Nov 29, 2018): CEO Vishal Makhijani left, Sebastian Thrun returned and cut 125 jobs. Inc42 citing the Economic Times (Jun 30, 2023): upGrad weighed a deal at ~$100-120M (upGrad denied); later reports put it near $80M; no deal followed. Accenture (Mar 5, 2024): agreed to acquire Udacity, terms not disclosed, 230+ staff; Accenture (May 20, 2024): completed. SEC NPORT-P filings of The Private Shares Fund, Udacity common, 448,075 shares throughout: $6.56/share at Dec 31, 2021, $5.04 at Sep 30, 2022, $1.88 at Sep 30, 2023, $1.12 at Mar 31, 2024, $0.11 at Jun 30, 2024 (after closing); SharesPost 100 Fund held the same lot at $6.52 in Jun 2020. Deal price not disclosed: dropPct is the fund's common-share mark decline (~98%) and applies to common stock, which ranks behind preferred.

Founders

Sebastian Thrun
co-founder & CEO (led at the 2015 peak), later executive chairman
Now Founder, President and Chairman at Sage AI LabsLinkedIn ↗
David Stavens
co-founder
Now Advisor at Future FamilyLinkedIn ↗
Mike Sokolsky
co-founder
Now Independent Consultant at sokolsky.ioLinkedIn ↗