Hercules Capital provided the debt facility to Udacity.

Udacity, the online education provider famous for its ‘Nanodegrees,’ has arranged a debt facility worth $ 75 million with Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC) to continue its growth momentum after turning profitable. (IndianWeb2)

To date, Udacity has raised $ 163 million from investors including Bertelsmann, Andreessen Horowitz, Charles River Ventures, and Drive Capital.

Strong Q3 result

Udacity announced earlier this week that enterprise and government bookings during Q3 rose 120% year-on-year. Meanwhile,  total bookings surged 80% year-on-year.

Further, as announced in July, the annual recurring revenue (ARR) of the global online learning platform increased by 260% during the first half of 2020.

The company said, “it had reached profitability.”

COVID-19 and tech disruptions

During the first half of 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the average monthly usage for individuals was up more than 50%. Further,  there was a 4x increase in weekly Nanodegree program sign-up rates.

Udacity said at the time that it expected continued growth and strong demand from workers who had been laid off, or displaced by digital transformation and other technological revolutions, as they reskilled themselves.

Significant growth in enterprise

Udacity said it was now seeing strong demand from businesses and governments for current and relevant technical skills.

“Udacity’s clients now include five of the world’s top seven aerospace companies, three of the Big Four professional services firms, the world’s leading pharmaceutical company, Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency, and three of the four branches of the United States Department of Defense,” it revealed in a statement.

Furthermore, in a significant trend, Udacity is partnering with large enterprises to offer relevant courses and degrees. It tied up with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) to offer a Microsoft Azure Nanodegree for Machine Learning Engineers. It also partnered with AT&T (NYSE: T) to offer 1,000 Nanodegree licenses to underserved communities.

Udacity’s “Nanodegree” programs comprise online courses and real-world projects in artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other disciplines.

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