Udacity begins preparing for an eventual IPO
Edu-tech firm is expanding aggressively in the region with tailored courses
In start-up parlance, a “moon shot” is an idea that seems outrageously ambitious, if not impossible, but if achieved would change the world.
The term was coined after former US president John F. Kennedy’s May 1961 promise that the US would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Eight years and $150 billion later, the mission was achieved, and the world was changed forever.
The online education company Udacity’s moon shot is to double the world’s GDP, according to regional director Hisham Elaraby. “It’s a big and ambitious mission, but we believe that if you can offer high quality technology education, this has the potential to double the world’s GDP,” he said.
Udacity offers short online courses, dubbed “nanodegrees”, that cost a fraction of a full degree and last a few months. All of the nanodegrees relate to technology, from basic coding to advanced cybersecurity.
The company promises that whilst its courses aren’t certified by an educational body, they are designed in tandem with private companies to ensure graduates are all but guaranteed jobs. “We want our product to be extremely job-ready,” Elaraby said.
Udacity has worked with Google, Facebook, Amazon, and IBM to develop projectbased programmes, tailored to their needs. “They help us with curriculum, we give them a talent pipeline and upscale ■ their existing employees,” he added.
The bargain has worked well so far in correcting the imbalance between the supply of talent and demand from tech companies. Globally, the company has enrolled over 50,000 students, around 5,000 of whom are in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena). Almost 2,000 come from Saudi Arabia alone.
Udacity is in good financial shape. At its last funding round in 2015, it was valued at $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion), having raised $163 million from Andreessen Horowitz and Alphabet’s venture capital arm, GV, among others.
Estimating that Udacity will have hit $100 million in revenue by the end of this year, Elaraby said the company was currently laying the groundwork for an eventual IPO.
“We have hired a company to build our audited financials and help us become officially audited, so the preparation is there,” he said. “The question is waiting for the right time.”
But Udacity’s story has not been without issues. It had laid off 5 per cent of its staff in September, and Vishal Makhijani stepped down as CEO just yesterday, Tech Crunch reported. Udacity didn’t provide a reason for Makhijani’s departure, and has yet to appoint a successor.
Despite setbacks, Udacity says it continues to push into the Middle East as a primary market. Elaraby said it had begun to develop courses tailored to the Arab world, and was providing fresh, local talent to the likes of Saudi Aramco and Careem.
“We decided to launch a digital freelancer programme in Arabic, in November,” he said. Exclusive to Mena, the one-month course promises to teach tech engineers and coders how to deploy their skills as a “side gig”, earning money in their spare time.