Following reports in the Financial Times that they're seeking a £40m cash injection, FutureLearn have confirmed that they are indeed seeking additional investors.
In their statement, FutureLearn did not confirm how much they were looking for, but the FT figure of £40m, is expected to include £10m from parent organisation, The Open University.
Their statement included:
"In light of the strong demand from both learners and institutional partners, FutureLearn is planning a significant expansion of its operations."
"To support this growth, FutureLearn intends to work with its existing stakeholders as well as bring in new investment partners to help grow its leading position in serving the needs of 21st Century learners even further. "
There's plenty of competition out there in the MOOC market for FutureLearn, and some of them are significantly larger, i.e. Udacity, Coursera and edX, so growing their 8 million registered users and reported revenue of £8.2m will not be an easy task.
Partnerships with other Universitys offering full degree programmes is one route that they're already going down, whilst the micro-credit route could be another.
The Open University has appointed IBIS Capital "to assist in the review of potential new investment partners for FutureLearn".
See also:
FutureLearn Statement
eLearningInside
The Pie News
