Thinkific has closed a $22 million growth financing round led by Vancouver’s own Rhino Ventures.
Thinkific has been profitable since 2018, yet chose to raise additional funding to accelerate product innovation, and continue shaping the future of online courses.
Rhino Ventures were early investors in the elearning startup and the new money brings the total raised to date to $25 million.
The financing comes at a time when the online course market—forecasted in 2019 to be worth $350 billion by 2025—has rapidly accelerated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Thinkific is changing the face of digital commerce by empowering every entrepreneur and business to earn revenue and make a meaningful impact teaching what they know,” said Greg Smith, co-founder & CEO of Thinkific.
Thinkific also announced plans to triple its workforce, hiring an additional 350 team members over the next 18 months. This significant hiring update follows yesterday’s news that Thinkific has committed to Pay Up for Progress, a new initiative started by Unbounce to urge business leaders to prioritize gender pay parity within their organizations.
Since March, Thinkific has seen a 200% increase in online courses being created on its platform. Online training is skyrocketing across every industry – from solo-preneurs teaching guitar fundamentals, business coaching, and fitness training.
“Despite the challenges of Covid-19, we’re seeing entrepreneurs use Thinkific to not only survive, but truly thrive,” said Smith. “Even before the pandemic hit, we were witnessing significant growth, but we’ve now seen the course creation industry change forever. A massive number of entrepreneurs are rapidly moving their offline businesses online to deliver exceptional teaching experiences to a new global audience. We’re also seeing a significant increase in the number of well-established businesses building out online training as a new revenue driver.”
Smith launched Thinkific in 2012 after discovering firsthand how difficult it was to create his own online course business.
Today, over 50,000 entrepreneurs and businesses from virtually every industry use Thinkific to create and sell their own online courses. Together, they’ve educated more than 25 million people from 190 countries.
“Not only are millions of people learning new skills, but our course creators are generating substantial revenues and building large, profitable businesses all on the Thinkific platform”, said Smith. This year, revenue earned by Thinkific course creators surpassed $650 million, and this revenue is expected to more than double to over $1.5 billion by the end of 2021.