Outschool operates a marketplace that offers over 140,000 virtual, small-group classes for children aged 3 to 18. The company grew its teacher base from fewer than 600 to over 7,000 and reported bookings growth of 1,500%, reaching over $100 million in bookings. Headcount expanded from 25 to 164 as the startup scaled rapidly in response to pandemic-driven demand. Outschool says it is prioritizing expansion and investing ahead of revenue rather than focusing on profitability at this time. In a prior fundraise the company dedicated 2% of its stock to reward teachers in the event of liquidity and launched Outschool.org, which has provided $2.5 million worth of free classes to low-income U.S. families. It is shifting its go-to-market toward schools and employer benefits—employees have spent over $1.1 million in employer-paid credits—and aims for more than half of enrollments to come from employers and schools within five years. Outschool operates a marketplace for small-group, live virtual after-school classes that can be one-off or ongoing. The company has shifted from mostly one-off classes to ongoing classes, which grew from 10% to 50% of its business and support more recurring revenue. Outschool reported more than $100 million in bookings in 2020, up from $6 million in 2019 and $500,000 in 2017, and briefly reached positive cash flow last year before that changed. Teachers set prices and keep 70% of class fees while Outschool takes a 30% cut; the company has dedicated 2% of its stock to reward teachers in the event of liquidity. Management plans to grow headcount from about 110 to 200 by year-end with a focus on international expansion after launches in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K. The company is piloting a B2B offering with schools, considers acquisitions of early-stage direct-to-consumer international learning startups, and views enterprise sales as a small but growing channel. Outschool operates a marketplace for live, small-group online classes spanning extracurriculars and academic topics, and lists more than 50,000 classes. Launched in 2015 to serve homeschoolers, the platform broadened to families with school-aged children and now reports 87% of buyers have kids in school. Bookings grew more than 2,000% between August 2019 and August 2020, and sales rose from $6.5M to about $54M year-over-year. The company turned its first profit during the COVID-19 crisis and is running at over $100M in annual run rate. Its teacher supply scaled from roughly 1,000 to 10,000 instructors and headcount grew to about 60 employees this year. Outschool plans to develop new types of classes, pursue international embedding, and explore integrating its platform into schools. Outschool operates a live, video-based marketplace that introduces students to a wide variety of online classes created and taught by independent teachers. Its offerings span traditional school subjects like algebra and U.S. history as well as novelty and enrichment topics (examples include learning architecture through Minecraft, Spanish via Taylor Swift songs, and biology through Pokémon). The platform hosts over 8,000 classes ranging from one-time enrichment lessons to semester-long core courses. Outschool provides a way for teachers to supplement their income by creating courses on the platform. Led by CEO Amir Nathoo, the company said it will use new funding to expand operations and hire across engineering, operations, and growth. The company is based in San Francisco, CA. Outschool operates an online marketplace that connects parents and K-12 students with live online classes spanning core academics, enrichment, and practical skills. Classes are guided by teachers via group video chat and messaging. Independent teachers—many of whom also teach or previously taught in public schools—offer courses on the platform. Parents use Outschool to accelerate learning, fill knowledge gaps, or pursue interests not covered in regular schools. The company is led by Nick Grandy and is based in San Francisco. Outschool raised $1.4M in seed funding to continue expanding operations.

Total raised

$240M

Funding rounds

5

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

Oct 2021