Vienna-based GoStudent has just raised €300 million in a round led by new investor Prosus, with additional participation from Deutsche Telekom, SoftBank Vision Fund 2*, Tencent, Dragoneer, Left Lane Capital and Coatue.
The fresh funding comes only seven months after GoStudent took the status as Europe’s first edtech unicorn in June 2021 for its one-to-one video-based online tutoring platform. Founded in 2016, GoStudent has experienced hypergrowth in its short lifespan, raising a total of over €590m million and now sitting at a €3 billion valuation. The startup was also able to further its international reach in 2021, entering Russian, Canadian and Mexican markets.
In 2021, the young company also opened 19 international office locations and has now grown the team by over 1000 employees and over 10k tutors in just 12 months. It wants to continue this trajectory, with further growth plans for 2022 underway. In addition, the number of tutoring sessions booked monthly grew tenfold: while GoStudent recorded 150k tutoring sessions booked per month last January, it surpassed the 1.5 million-mark by the end of 2021.
Founded by Felix Ohswald (CEO) and Gregor Müller (COO), currently GoStudent is serving customers in 22 countries. Via its platform, GoStudent provides paid, one-to-one, video-based tutoring to primary, secondary and college-aged students in 30+ subjects, using a membership model. We interviewed Felix back in 2020 when he predicted a bright future for edtech in Europe.
“At GoStudent, our mission has stayed consistent since our founding: to unlock the potential of every student worldwide by enabling students to feel supported in their academic journey,” said Felix Ohswald, Co-Founder and CEO of GoStudent. “Education has seen a whirlwind of change, from remote classrooms to increased academic ambitions, and we believe there is a big opportunity to transform how students learn all over the world by expanding access to quality education. We are thrilled to receive support from both new and existing investors as we continue to revolutionise education worldwide.”
The new funding will provide a generous boost towards GoStudent’s three central and strategic pillars: international expansion, product expansion through M&A, and increased market share in existing geographies.
To expand services internationally, and achieve the goal of becoming a world leader in tutoring, GoStudent will continue driving fast global expansion, expanding to several new countries that demonstrate a significant market opportunity. GoStudent plans to enter a minimum of six markets this year, including new regions such as the US, Asia-Pacific and the MENA-Region.
In addition, the innovative edtech is proactively aiming to grow and diversify its range of services through M&A. To enhance the learning experience of K12 students, GoStudent plans to acquire best of breed K12 education services and products to create a cohesive and streamlined learning experience.
Lastly, the company will continue to invest in existing regions with the goal of increasing penetration in areas where tutoring services are highly fragmented and traditionally offline.
“Our goal is to disrupt traditional perceptions of the tutoring industry by demonstrating to parents the advantages of choosing a carefully selected online tutor, in turn significantly improving the student learning experience,” said Gregor Müller, Co-Founder and COO at GoStudent.
