Coursera CEO Rick Levin stopped by Fortune yesterday, having just closed on $50 million in new funding for the online education provider. The former president of Yale, Levin has a business model that is unique in that it depends on working with top universities — even though its courses cost less than lunch on most of the participating campuses.
Levin argues the model is working. Three-quarters of Coursera’s users come from outside the U.S., and colleges and universities find they can use Coursera as lead generation for new students for their degree programs. Inside the U.S., the users are mostly beyond college age.
The company is also making progress providing groupings of courses, called “specializations,” that allow people in careers to master new skills. He says Coursera, for instance, has become the leading trainer of data scientists.
When will the company turn a profit? Levin won’t predict, other to say it will be within a decade. When will it begin to disrupt elite four-year colleges like the one he used to run? Longer than that.
More news below.
| Alan Murray | |
| @alansmurray | |
| alan.murray@fortune.com |
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