Coursera is expected to double its private valuation when it goes public next week, so here’s everything that investors need to know about the upcoming IPO.
In Coursera’s latest S1 filing, the company set an initial IPO price range between $30 and $33 per share, showing the market’s healthy appetite for the edtech (educational technology) business. The company is planning to offer roughly 14.66 million shares of its common stock in its market debut and stated that its current shareholders are going to offer around 1.1 million shares. The edtech platform, which works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a number of different subjects, is currently valued at around $2.5 billion.
At $30 per share, the low end of the expected range, Coursera would be worth $3.98 billion, or $4.38 billion if it hits $33 per share. These figures represent a strong increase from the company’s last private valuation, which was $2.4 billion in October 2020.
When can I buy Coursera stock?
Coursera will go public via IPO on the NYSE on Wednesday, March 31, 2021.
What is Coursera’s IPO Price?
Coursera is expected to go public between $30 and $33 per share under the ticker symbol, COUR.
Coursera’s Financials
The current valuation is a vote of confidence and even though Coursera is not without risk, confidence is so high that the company may just be worth the gamble.
Coursera’s revenue and user acquisition rate look promising:
- In 2020, the company increased revenue to $293.5 million, up 59% year-on-year.
- Added more than 12,000 new degree students in 2019 and 2020, at an average acquisition cost of under $2,000,
- Total registered users grew 65% year-over-year in 2020.
However, Coursera’s losses are also mounting. In 2020, the company lost $14.3 million, $13.9 million, $11.9 million, and $26.7 million in each quarter respectively. These losses were due to Coursera spending $35 million on sales and marketing expenses in Q4 2020. In addition, Coursera’s losses increased from $26.9 million to $39.8 million between 2019 to 2020, driven by offering premium services for free.
Growth Potential
The platform, used by over 3,700 colleges and universities worldwide, benefitted from increased demand for online learning platforms during the COVID-19 emergency as employees had more time to take digital courses to rotate into new careers and students took up extra classes. At the end of 2020, over 150 universities offered more than 4,000 courses through the platform. Considering there are roughly 5,300 colleges and universities in the U.S. alone, and 25,000 in the world, the company definitely still has plenty of room to grow.
The great thing about the company is that its reach goes beyond students. During the pandemic, Coursera partnered with over 330 government agencies across 70 countries and 30 U.S. states as part of the Coursera Workforce Recovery Initiative to give free access to thousands of courses from companies like Amazon and Google.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a lasting effect on how we all work and study, and many believe that we won’t go back to physical establishments after they have been working and learning productively online for the past year. This is great news for Coursera as it is one of the leading educational technologies leading the way for this trend.
Investors are valuing Coursera as a software company and on its potential growth, instead of its current lack of profitability. Therefore, Coursera’s market debut should be a blockbuster hit as Wall Street gets ready to swallow up yet another tech IPO.
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