Online learning platform Udacity had a banner year in 2017, according to a rare glimpse at the (still private) company’s financials. It revealed that it had over 8 million students in total on the platform, counting enrolments across both free and paid courses, which is a big bump from the nearly five million it counted at the end of 2016.
Despite not quite doubling enrolled students, Udacity did manage to more than double its revenue over the course of the year, up to around $70 million in “total revenues,” which Udacity attributes to multiple factors including new program introductions Deep Learning, Robotics, Intro to Self-Driving and more, enterprise sales and also international sales to students outside the U.S.
In fact, Udacity says its international student enrolment was up over 200 percent for 2017 vs. 2016. As for its paid Nanodegree programs, which aim to provide an industry-recognized new credential and a direct path to employment in many cases, Udacity says that over 50,000 students are currently enrolled in one, and over 18,000 have graduated since their introduction with the first Nanodegree in 2014.
Good progress for a completely non-traditional education route that’s been targeting specific skill gaps in the technology industry.
