Varsity Tutors began in 2011 as an offline tutor-matching service and has evolved into a full-fledged online learning platform offering on-demand content and live one-on-one tutoring. Its Instant Tutoring product can connect a student with a live expert in as little as 15 seconds via web or mobile, and sessions include document editing, a shared whiteboard and other instructional tools. The company reports 3 million hours of live one-on-one tutoring, more than 40,000 experts on the platform, and coverage across 1,000 subjects. In September 2017 Varsity Tutors acquired First Tutors in the UK and is sharing technology assets between the entities. With the new funding the company plans to enter new categories and geographies and build new products, citing demand for technical training and potential expansion into music lessons. Since inception Varsity Tutors has raised a total of $107 million. Varsity Tutors connects rigorously vetted, elite tutors with students for both in-person and live online sessions, and provides platform tools such as live video chat with document editing, text, and a whiteboard. The company also offers Varsity Learning Tools, a product delivering free academic content for students to practice and hone skills. Tutors undergo rigorous interviews and subject-by-subject tests to evaluate knowledge and teaching confidence. About half of the business comes from high school students, with the other half split evenly between K–8 and college/adult learners. Founder Chuck Cohn began the business as a side project and left his VC role in 2011 to focus on building the online platform. The company plans to use the financing to power a broad mobile strategy enabling on-demand live video tutoring from anywhere and intends to broaden instruction into additional subjects (cooking, Photoshop, Ruby on Rails) while repositioning tutors as “instructors.” Varsity Tutors has raised a total of $57 million across two rounds.

Total raised

$100M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series C

Latest activity

Feb 2018