(Reuters) – Shares of online learning platform Coursera Inc opened 18% above the initial public offering price in their U.S. debut on Wednesday, valuing the company at $5.08 billion.
The stock opened at $39, compared to the IPO price of $33 per share. The company was valued at $2.57 billion after its fundraising round in July last year, according to data from Pitchbook.
The Mountain View, California-based firm on Tuesday priced 15.7 million shares at the upper end of the $30 to $33 range it had announced, raising around $519 million. About 1.1 million shares were offered by selling stockholders.
Coursera is the latest in a string of strong market debuts by technology companies that have benefited from disruptions caused by the pandemic.
The company’s business has been boosted by people staying at home due to the health crisis shifting to digital modes of learning.
Coursera offers courses on cloud computing, language learning and machine learning, among others. Its platform is used by more than 3,700 universities and colleges worldwide, its website showed.
It launched “Coursera for Campus” in response to the pandemic to help educational institutions offer courses to stuck-at-home students.
Coursera joins the list of online learning portals like Nerdy Inc and Skillsoft that in recent months have announced they would go public through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies.
Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are among the underwriters for Coursera’s offering.
(Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
