SKILLSHARE PARTNERS WITH ADOBE AND RAISES ADDITIONAL FUNDING

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After raising a USD 66 million Series D funding in August to expand access to creative courses globally, Skillshare that it has raised new funding from Adobe, the global leader in creative software. The total amount of funding was not disclosed, but this latest raise is part of Skillshare’s Series D round announced this summer.

Founded in 2010 by Malcolm Ong and Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of inspiring classes for creative and curious people, on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more. The company now has 12 million registered members, 8,000 teachers and 30,000 classes — all accessible for USD 99 a year or USD 19 a month. To date, Skillshare has raised over USD 108 million in capital from Union Square Ventures, OMERS Growth Equity, Amasia, Burda Principal Investments, and Spero Ventures.

Matt Cooper, Skillshare’s CEO said that the pandemic also meant that, “a lot more people had a lot more free time at home and were looking for a constructive way to spend it.” In fact, the company said that since its rebranding, new membership sign-ups have tripled, with existing members watching three times the number of lessons. The latest funding comes at a time when people are discovering new interests as well as are looking to acquire new skills, while creative professionals are turning to Skillshare to monetize their talent by creating online tutorials. In fact, more than 30% of Skillshare classes feature Adobe products and in 2019, Adobe partnered with Skillshare to provide exclusive tutorials with leading illustrators in connection with the launch of Fresco, Adobe’s next-generation painting, and drawing app.

“We are excited to deepen our partnership with Adobe,” said CEO Matt Cooper. “We both believe in the incredible power of creativity to transform people’s lives, both on a personal and professional level. 75 percent of Americans participate in a creative hobby, and we want to support creative learners around the world on their journey.”

After all, this transactions has parallels with Mailchimp’s acquisition of Courier, where the joined efforts underline the trend towards offering a fully integrated and emotional experience of a brand and a product, paying particular attention to a loyal community and combining state-of-the-art software with unique content to continuously engage with customer.