Maven Raises $20 Million in Series A Funding Led by Andreessen Horowitz

AUSTIN, Texas, May 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses created by the founders of Udemy, altMBA, and Socratic, today announced $20 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Maven works with the world's leading creators, including Li Jin, Lenny Rachitsky, and Sahil Lavingia, to help them create online courses centered around interaction, community, and accountability. These courses enable creators to deepen relationships with their audience while simultaneously earning significant income. In just the first three months after launch, four Maven courses each earned over $100,000. These cohort-based courses, where people learn together at the same time, also deliver more impact and higher completion rates than video-based online learning.

Founded by veteran founders Gagan Biyani, Wes Kao, and Shreyans Bhansali, Maven centralizes the suite of tools needed to create and run a cohort-based course so that instructors can focus on teaching.

"There are thousands of experts, creators, and practitioners around the world who have valuable knowledge to share but aren't traditional professors," said Gagan Biyani, CEO and co-founder of Maven. "We're creating the university of the future, built around these 21st century professors. We couldn't ask for a better partner than Andrew Chen and Andreessen Horowitz to join us on that journey."

"Cohort-based courses are the next evolution of online learning," said Wes Kao, co-founder of Maven. "They combine the convenience and accessibility of the internet with the hands-on learning of the best traditional education. While MOOCs have a 7-10% completion rate, cohort-based courses have a more than 75% completion rate, along with significantly higher student satisfaction. For students, it's the best of both worlds."

"The team at Maven is on to something huge with cohort-based courses: they represent a new monetization model for creators that is powerful for both the learners and the instructors," said Andrew Chen, a General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz who is joining the company's board of directors. "We're thrilled to work with the Maven team to help them realize this vision."

To further its mission to unlock the knowledge of the world's leading experts through cohort-based courses, Maven is hiring for multiple roles. Interested candidates can learn more and apply here.

About Maven
Maven is a new platform for cohort-based courses created by the founders of Udemy, altMBA, and Socratic. Inspired by the simplicity and power of tools like Shopify and Substack, Maven is building a platform that enables the best creators in the world, including Li Jin, Lenny Rachitsky, and Sahil Lavingia, to build the most engaging and interactive courses. These cohort-based courses, where students learn together at the same time, deliver more impact and higher completion rates for students than typical online learning, while also providing significant income for instructors.

Maven's mission is to unlock the knowledge of the world's leading experts through cohort-based courses.

Contact:
J.J. Colao
[email protected]

SOURCE Maven