Trilogy Education, a white-label platform for universities to offer educational bootcamps for coding, data analytics, UX/UI, and cybersecurity, has been acquired by 2U, a diversified education technology company, for $750M. The deal is a combination of cash ($400M) and stock ($350M). “By joining forces with 2U, Trilogy Education can empower universities to reach more students, in more places, throughout more of their lives, while driving positive economic impact in their local regions,” remarked Dan Sommer, Founder and CEO of Trilogy Education.
By joining forces with 2U, Trilogy Education can empower universities to reach more students, in more places, throughout more of their lives, while driving positive economic impact in their local regions – Dan Sommer
Founded by Sommer and David Berger in 2015, Trilogy Education had raised a total of $80M in reported equity funding. Investors in the company are mostly private equity firms and they include Highland Capital Partners, Rethink Education, City Light Capital, Macquarie Group, and Exceed Capital Partners. This transaction comes week after coding bootcamp Full Stack Academy was acquired by Bridgepoint Education for approximately $50M as consolidation in the edtech space continues.
The transaction is expected to close in the next 60 days and 2U plans to retain the bulk of Trilogy Education’s team. 2U is based in Washington DC and was founded by Chip Paucek, Jeremy Johnson (also founded Andela), John Katzman (also founded Noodle) in 2008. The company went public on the Nasdaq in 2014 and its current market cap is $3.86B.
“Trilogy Education has built and scaled an incredible business thanks to Dan and his talented team, and we’re thrilled to have them join 2U. Their business is a natural strategic fit and growth driver for 2U that will extend our reach across the career curriculum continuum, deepen our relationships with new and existing partners, drive marketing efficiencies, and open a more direct corporate training and enterprise sales channel for the company. We expect the addition of Trilogy to accelerate our path to $1 billion in revenue by one year from 2022 to 2021,” said Paucek , Cofounder and CEO of 2U.
Trilogy Education has built and scaled an incredible business thanks to Dan and his talented team, and we’re thrilled to have them join 2U. Their business is a natural strategic fit and growth driver for 2U that will extend our reach across the career curriculum continuum, deepen our relationships with new and existing partners, drive marketing efficiencies, and open a more direct corporate training and enterprise sales channel for the company. – Christopher “Chip” Paucek